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ARCHITECTURE

AND

FINE ARTS LIBRARY

Stratford Hall

STRATFORD HALL

The Great House oj the Lees

By ETHEL ARMES

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

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RICHMOND • VIRGINIA
GARRETT AND MASSIE • INCORPORATED
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MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES

THE PRESIDENT
AND

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF

THE ROBERT E. LEE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION

Whose devoted work for Stratford Hall conserves
the record of a great family, re-creates a
manner of living long since gone,
and bears a message from
the past to the
future.

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015

https://archive.org/details/stratfordhalltheOOrich

PREFACE

p* |[ SHIS book records the history of the men and women who were
the owners and occupants of Stratford over a period of more than
two hundred years. It is a document of human lives and char-
acters rather than a formal historical treatise or an architectural or tech-
nical record of the restoration of the Great House. The desire to write
such a book came to me when 1 first saw Stratford in the spring of 1928.
I wanted to know the kind of men the Lees of Stratford were aside from
their public lives; to see pictures of the eighteenth century neighbor-
hood and plantation life around Stratford and learn what relationship
the men and their house bore to the county, as well as to colony and
state; how they treated their servants and slaves; what they thought
about books and religion. I wanted to know about the women they
loved and married, or loved and did not marry — and also of their com-
panionship with their children.

Only through knowledge of these things could the stature of each
man be determined, his real nature and influence discerned and gauged.
The intimate personal record of a man, his "private life” as it is curiously
termed, inevitably explains and illumines his public life so that the two
are essentially one. What odd psychology ever to separate them!

Answers came to all my questions, not quickly of course, but grad-
ually during the next seven years. Many came through discoveries of
original letters and documents. Such authentic personal records, here-
tofore unpublished, form part of the substance of this history. In these
pages, the Lees of Stratford speak for themselves in their own words.

Their letters, directly quoted throughout the book, are supplemented
by court records and other documentary proof. My interpretation of
the lives of the Lees is based on the friendship that has come about
from long familiarity with these letters. They, of course, cannot be
quoted in full within the limits of a single volume.

First acknowledgments for assistance in the preparation of the book
belong to the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Yale University,
and the Library of Congress.

The Lee Foundation sponsored the historical research after 1928.
During one year of this period the active cooperation of Yale Univer-
sity in the research was received when a grant was given the Foundation
through the Mabel Brady Garvan Institute of American Arts and Crafts.
Dr. Everett V. Meeks, Dean of the Yale University School of the Fine
Arts, appointed me to continue the search for specific records that would
provide the historical background for the architectural restoration of

Stratford. Research into the personal histories of the Lees, in which I
had been chiefly interested, was therefore subordinated to that required
by the archaeological and purely architectural demands of the house,
the grounds and gardens. Numerous facts came to light in the re-
newed examination of the personal letters and documents and additional
original source material, as mentioned in Chapter XXIV, was dis-
covered.

When the Lee Foundation began preparations in 1934 for the dedi-
cation of Stratford as a national shrine, I was released from research
proper in order to write the book which, in the meantime, had been
requested by the publishers. The Foundation was interested in having
the material which had been collected over the six-year period made
readily available and a concrete record of the restoration as accom-
plished up to the dedication year. For the generous aid given for this
purpose I wish to express my appreciation to the Lee Foundation, and
especially to its President and the Book Committee.

The names of the Board of Directors of the Lee Foundation are
omitted at their special request. Also omitted are the names of members
of the national and state advisory boards and all individuals officially
connected in a volunteer capacity with the Stratford work as well as
those of cooperating organizations, large and small, and all donors and
contributors as it is impracticable in a volume of this size to include
these names.

In the words of the President of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foun-
dation:

"The policy the Foundation would have preferred to see followed
in this, the dedication edition of the book on Stratford Hall — would
have been to thank individually every one of our friends and helpers of
the hundreds scattered over the land. But this is not possible.

"Some of these who have given so freely of their time or money or
both are powerful and nationally known organizations with tens of thou-
sands of members; others are small organizations or individuals of
modest means who have given relatively little money but so much and
so cheeringly in proportion to their resources that the Foundation is
deeply moved by the thought of their self-sacrifice. Without the aid re-
ceived from all the purchase of Stratford could not have been effected
or the restoration of house, outbuildings or gardens, accomplished up
to its present stage. The Foundation must allow this work at Stratford
itself to attest the generosity of the thousands who have made it possible.

"Although, in this record of the history of Stratford it has been dif-
ficult for us to avoid public acknowledgment of the contributions that

have meant so much to the Foundation, especially in the critical years
when our work was beginning, unless such acknowledgment can be
given to all, we have come to the conclusion that it is better not to give
such record to any among the large number who have so generously
helped us, even though we feel so deeply grateful.

"It would require a large volume in itself to record accurately and
comprehensively the names and donations of all the friends of Stratford.
And this we have done in our Book of the Contributors to Stratford
Hall.”

From the Library of Congress I have received every conceivable aid
through the cooperation given by Martin A. Roberts, Superintendent of
Reading Rooms. When books of the original Stratford library came to
light in Alexandria, Virginia, Hugh Alexander Morrison, Custodian of
the Representatives’ Reading Room, assisted in cataloguing them and
quickly located missing title pages and other lost fragments of text and
illustrations in editions available only in the British Museum or in the
libraries of Yale University or Harvard College. Mr. Morrison also sup-
plied some valuable information about Richard Henry Lee.

When the privilege of examining the journal written by Light-Horse
Harry Lee was kindly extended by its discoverer and owner, Dr. William
Moseley Brown, at his Virginia home, and the aid of a Greek and Latin
scholar was necessary, Dr. Harold W. Miller of the Library staff assisted
in the interpretation of this rare document. Karl Trever helped in the
examination of the files of the Journals of Congress and in the com-
pilation of records about the birthplace of Ann Hill Carter. Donald G.
Patterson, in charge of study rooms, prepared a list of references on
Arthur Lee, Richard Henry Lee and William Lee. Willard Webb made
the pen and ink sketches of the coats of arms in this volume. George W.
Morgan directed the making of the photostats. Transcriptions of the
letters of Ann Carter Lee in the Division of Manuscripts and of those
in the possession of the Lee Foundation were made by Maud Kay Sites.
To all of these members of the staff of the Library of Congress, includ-
ing also Claus Bogel, A. W. Kremer, Frank E. Louraine and Samuel M.
Croft, I am indebted for most courteous cooperation. To Dr. Leicester
B. Holland, Chief of the Division of Fine Arts, I am indebted for sug-
gestions in the selection and placement of many of the illustrations.

I also wish to thank Dean Meeks and Professor Charles Nagel, Jr., of
Yale University for their constructive aid and never flagging interest in
that part of the Stratford research made under their direction and with
their constant cooperation since the completion of the first "Stratford
Survey.” From the Yale University Library has also come practical and

generous cooperation with the Stratford research through Andrew
Keogh, Librarian, and Charles E. Rush, Assistant Librarian, who pro-
vided the Lee Foundation with several hundred photostats of original
Lee letters and documents lent by descendants of the Stratford Lees.

Thanks are due Walter B. Briggs, Acting Librarian of Harvard Col-
lege Library, for making its collection of Lee Letter Books readily ac-
cessible; and to Mrs. Anna F. Dakin, assistant in the Archives Collection,
for special aid in locating records of Charles Carter Lee and other mem-
bers of the class of 1819.

For certain interesting information I am indebted to Francis P. Gaines,
President of Washington and Lee University; Dr. E. G. Swem, Libra-
rian of the College of William and Mary; Emily L. Wilson, Librarian,
Florida State Historical Society; Dr. W. G. Stanard, Virginia Histori-
cal Society; Mrs. Victor Stewart of Chippokes Plantation; Robert Nel-
son, Director of the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce; Emma Chip-
ley of Moorefield, West Virginia; Captain Dudley W. Knox, officer-in-
charge of the Office of Naval Records and Library, Navy Department;
Mrs. Frederick Walls of Georgetown, Delaware; Professor R. E. E.
Harkness, President of the American Baptist Historical Society; Harold
Shurtleff, Director of the Department of Research and Record of the
Williamsburg Holding Corporation; John H. K. Burgwin, George Stuart,
Tench Tilghman Marye, Charles E. Stuart, Richard W. Millar, T. Mor-
rison Carnegie of Dungeness, Cumberland Island, and the Honorable
R. Walton Moore, Assistant Secretary of State.

Historical records relating to the Somerville family and to the career
of William Clarke Somerville, fifth master of Stratford, have been fur-
nished by James W. Somerville, J. A. Somerville and Elizabeth Hebb.

Grateful acknowledgment is especially due to Dr. Douglas Southall
Freeman, Henry W. Lanier, Dr. Charles O. Paullin, Gist Blair, Dr.
Elizabeth Kite, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Resor, and Miss Janet Richards,
all of whom have read various portions of the manuscript and, as friend-
ly critics, have given me sympathetic and most constructive aid.

It is impossible to express how much this book owes to Roma Kauff-
man. In addition to special research, she has given a critical reading of
every portion of the manuscript, and I am grateful for her discrimi-
nating criticism. I also thank Lucy Brown Beale, who has so ably assisted
in the research in Virginia courthouses and in many other ways has had
an effective part in this work. Marian H. Addington provided inter-
esting details of Stratford in Essex, helped with the Lee genealogical
charts and in the interpretation and transcription of many original Lee
letters and photostats. For much of the work of transcribing, as well

xii

as of checking and rechecking with the quotes and records, I am in-
debted to my secretary, Rosa M. Wade.

Among the members of the Lee family who have generously per-
mitted the use of exclusive historical or pictorial material in their pos-
session are Mrs. Mildred Lee Francis, Mrs. Hugh Antrim, Mrs. Gran-
ville G. Valentine, Mrs. Ellin Lee Rhea, Dr. George Bolling Lee, J. Col-
lins Lee, Thomas Alexander Lee, Robert Randolph Lee, Dr. Henry
Lee, Mrs. Catharine Lee Hopkins, Charles Carter Lee, Jr., and Dr. Lloyd
P. Shippen. Mrs. Francis, granddaughter of Light-Horse Harry Lee, read
many chapters of the manuscript, and I have received from her much
information of historical value.

Photographs of Stratford have been taken by Frances Benjamin John-
ston, Dr. Orrin S. Wightman, Theodore Irving Coe, the Virginia State
Chamber of Commerce, and the Lucy Lamar Galleries. Photographs of
rare portraits have been furnished by the Frick Art Reference Library,
the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Virginia Historical Society.

The volume is divided into four parts or books, three of which trace
the history of the Lees and of the Clifts Plantation — later Stratford —
from the time that Jamestown and Williamsburg were the colonial
capitals of Virginia through the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
when the estate passed out of the ownership of the Lee family into that
of the Somerville, Storke, McCarty and Stuart families, and finally the
Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. Book Four treats briefly of the
Great House under the ownership of the Foundation. Record of its
"rediscovery” in 1928 and the preliminary research is followed by that
of the formation of the Lee Foundation to purchase and restore the
property and to dedicate and maintain it as a national shrine. An author-
itative presentation of the archaeological explorations and the partial
restoration of the mansion, certain of the outbuildings, portions of the
grounds, and the Stratford gardens has been made possible through
the cooperation of Arthur A. Shurcliff, Fiske Kimball, Herbert A. Clai-
borne and Morley J. Williams, all of whom have generously lent their
reports and specifications and afforded me through the Lee Foundation
the use of their maps, photographs, drawings and plans. My thanks
are extended to them also for giving a critical reading of the chapters
dealing with this part of the Stratford work. For other points of archi-
tectural information about Stratford I am indebted to William Law-
rence Bottomley and Thomas Tileston Waterman, Assistant Director,
Historic American Buildings Survey, U. S. Department of the Interior.

In reading and correcting the proof of the entire book I have had the
expert assistance of Lalla Herrscher Cornish and I wish particularly to

xiii

express my appreciation for this invaluable aid and also for the many
constructive suggestions Mrs. Cornish has so generously given.

Notwithstanding meticulous care, certain errors have crept into my
manuscript, as in the epitaph on the tomb of the second Richard Lee
at Burnt House Fields. When I revisited this old burying ground of
the Lees for the purpose of deciphering the inscriptions on the tombs,
rain put a speedy end to the task. Accordingly I availed myself of the
version used in Lee of Virginia, evidently copied from that of Bishop
Meade. When this book had gone to press, a member of the Lee family
presented me with the recently corrected transcript of the inscriptions
on the tombs and this version has been placed in the Supplementary
Records. Other additional subject matter appears in the appendix and
is listed in the table of contents. Much variation in spelling occurs in
old letters and documents and even in court records, particularly of
proper names and places. In the transcripts made for this volume great
care has been taken to reproduce the original context. Wherever it has
not been possible for me to collate a given copy with the original this
fact is stated in a footnote. Where mistakes are discovered they will be
corrected in future editions and I shall appreciate the kindness of readers
who will call my attention to errors.

The printed source materials, as well as the manuscripts, are listed in
the bibliography wherever they are not indicated in the content itself or
by footnote. Among the books written by the Lees themselves, much
has been drawn from the writings of Major Henry Lee, the last Lee
master of Stratford, and from his father’s Memoirs. Some data has
been obtained from the first biographies of Richard Henry and Arthur
Lee written by their kinsman of two generations later, Richard Henry
Lee, Jr., of Shuter’s Hill, Alexandria, and Belmont in Loudoun County.
E. J. Lee’s Lee of Virginia is a never-failing source of information about
the Lees and related families. So is Bishop Meade’s Old Churches, Min-
isters and Families of Virginia. Photostats of Reverend George Wash-
ington Beale’s series of newspaper articles on Stratford and other early
plantations of the Northern Neck of Virginia, furnished by R. C. Ballard
Thruston, have provided interesting and rare source material. Facts of
intrinsic value to Virginia history and specifically to the Northern Neck,
are revealed in early nineteenth century books about the early Baptist
Society in colonial Virginia.

Among the original letters in the manuscript collections heretofore
unpublished, certain of the letters of Light-Horse Harry Lee to his family
throw new light on his history and character. Several letters of Ann
Carter Lee which also receive their first publication here, add much to

XIV

the meagre records of the mother of Robert £. Lee. Of incomparable
interest and pathos is the correspondence of Light-Horse Harry Lee’s
son, Major Henry Lee, and his wife, Anne McCarty Lee. All these letters
and many others lost for a century were found locked in a trunk stored
in the smokehouse of an old Virginia home.

Lrom other unpublished letters and the few published verses of Charles
Carter Lee, as well as from verbal statements made bv him to his
daughter Mildred, have come items of information and descriptions of
great value to the historian and to the Lee Loundation. Carter Lee was
not only the diarist of early Stratford days; he was also the one archivist
of his immediate family.

The Shippen papers in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd P. Shippen,
as well as those deposited in the Library of Congress, contain original
letters of Alice Lee Shippen, Hannah Lee Corbin, Lucy Grymes Lee
Carter, Arthur Lee, Bernard Carter, Dr. William Shippen and Tom
Shippen — invaluable to the Stratford historian.

No one can read far into the Lee records without finding the history
of the family of peculiar psychological interest as well as extraordinary
historical import. This might also be said of other families whose records
reach back equally as far. It is a question, however, if there is any family
so merged into practically every phase of this nation’s making as the
Lees of Virginia whose history contains such elements of drama. For
this reason no book about Stratford Hall can be merely a brick and
mortar record but must be one in which the human being is, as it were,
the headstone of the building.

Ethel Armes.

Richmond, Virginia,

November eleventh, 1936.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface ix

Foreword by Franklin D. Roosevelt xxv

BOOK ONE

THE COLONIAL BACKGROUND OF STRATFORD HALL

1633-1760

I The Provenance of the Stratford Lees .... 1

II The Record of a Young Colonial 25

III The Building of the Great House 45

IV Commander in Chief of Virginia 65

V The Second Master of Stratford 88

VI The Plantation and the Waterfront . . . .114

BOOK TWO

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS AFTERMATH
1760-90

VII The Band of Brothers: Intrepid and Unchangeable 139
VIII Vincit Amor Patriae Laudumque Immensa Cupido 164

IX Alice Lee: Mistress of Shippen House .... 192

X Hannah Lee: Mistress of Peckatone .... 199

XI The Fifth Generation of the Lees 218

XII The Third Master of Stratford 240

BOOK THREE

A CENTURY OF CHANGE
1790-1890

XIII Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth . . . 263

XIV The Return to Westmoreland 283

XV Through Carter’s Eyes 296

XVI Storm Clouds Gather Over Stratford Hall . .312

XVII To Secure the Blessings of Liberty 330

XVIII The End at Dungeness 345

XIX The Last Lef. Master of Stratford 366

XX Consul to the Barbary Powers 385

XXI The Fifth Master of Stratford 411

xvii

PAGE

XXII Elizabeth McCarty: Mistress of Stratford . . . 422

The Owners of Stratford on the Potomac,

1651-1929 439

The Lees Who Lived at Stratford from 1729-30

to 1822 440

BOOK FOUR

THE RESTORATION OF STRATFORD
1928-1933

XXIII The Scene in 1928 443

XXIV The Historical Background 455

XXV The Great House and Its Dependencies .... 477

XXVI Gardens, Grounds and Orchard 495

XXVII Stratford Hall: A National Shrine . . . .513

Supplementary Records:

1 Genealogical Charts

Prefatory Note 521

English Ancestry of the Virginia Lees . . .523

Richard Lee of England and America . . .524

Richard Lee of Cople (or Matholic) . . . 525

Thomas Lee of Stratford Hall 526

Henry Lee of Lee Hall 527

2 Records of the Mount Pleasant Line of Lees . .528

3 Notes About Stratford-Langthorne . . . .532

4 Record of the Ludwell Family 532

5 Chippokes Plantation 534

6 The Deed of 1732 to Chantilly 534

7 Will of Thomas Lee 534

8 The Lee Family Burying Grounds in Westmore-

land 538

9 The Baptist Society in Colonial Virginia . . . 541

10 The Birthplace of Ann Hill Carter 543

11 Records of Lucy Grymes Lee and Bernard M. Carter 546

12 The Great Drought in Westmoreland .... 547

Bibliography 549

Index 559

xviii

ILLUSTRATIONS

Stratford Hall Frontispiece page

From a photograph of an old painting by Minnie Ward of Bladensfield. (Courtesy of
Josephine Wheelwright Rust)

The Foundations of Philip Lud well’s Three Houses at Jamestown ,
Virginia 2

(Courtesy of The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities)

A mapp of Virginia difcoured to ye Hills: Drawn in 1651 by Vir-
ginia Ferrar 3

(Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Division of Maps)

The Honorable Colonel Richard Lee of Stratford-Langthorne, Essex,
England, and of Virginia: progenitor of the Stratford Lees . . 5

From the original portrait by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of Robert E. Lee Memorial
Foundation)

Coat of Arms — Lee of Coton Hall 6

Wood carving of Lee Arms on the door of old Cobbs Hall, home
of the first Richard Lee 10

Sir William Berkeley, Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia . 13

From the original portrait by an unknown artist, now in the possession of Maurice duPont
Lee. (Courtesy of I. Newton Lewis)

Mrs. Philip Ludwell, Lady Berkeley (Frances Culpeper) widow of
Sir William Berkeley 14

From the original portrait by an unknown artist, now in the possession of Maurice duPont
Lee. (Courtesy of I. Newton Lewis)

Conjectural restoration of ancient buildings at Jamestown, Virginia,
on the foundations reputed by Samuel H. Yonge to be the site of
the Fourth State House, Philip Ludwell’ s Three Houses, and the

Country House 17

(Courtesy of Thomas Tileston Waterman)

The second Philip Ludwell, grandfather of the Stratford Lees . . 21

From the original portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller. (Courtesy of owner, Gerard B. Lambert,
and Frick Art Reference Library)

These wooded palisades of Stratford on Potomac have a rugged
grandeur and mystic loveliness. In the days of the early Lees eagles
nested there 27

Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston

Foundation plan of the Castle at Green Spring, the first Great House
in Virginia, built by Governor Berkeley about 1648. Property of
Ludwell and Lee families for 521 years. Discovered and identified

in 1926 by Jesse Dimmick 30

The Secretary’s house, Williamsburg 31

Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston. (Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of
Fine Arts)

xtx

The Secretary’s house, Williamsburg 34

Photograph by Delos H. Smith. (Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Fine Arts)

Northwest dependency of the Great House, probably rr The Counting
House” of Thomas Lee’s inventory (1758) 36

Photograph by Virginia State Chamber of Commerce. (Courtesy of Robert Nelson,
Director)

Hannah Harrison (Mrs. Philip Ludwell ), grandmother of the Strat-
ford Lees 38

From the original painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. (Courtesy of owner, Gerard B. Lam-
bert, and Frick Art Reference Library)

Stratford Hall stands on a broad plateau protected on the river side
by natural fortifications 44

Sketch by Morley J. Williams. (Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia)

Landscape design of Ashdown House, Berkshire, England ... 46

(Courtesy of Country Life, London, England)

Southwest dependency: probably the Law Office of Stratford . . 48

Comparative plans, showing similarity of dimensions and founda-

tion plan between Stratf ord Hall and the Capitol at Williamsburg 50

(Courtesy of Thomas Tileston Waterman)

Landscape design for Stratford by Morley J .Williams . . . .51

(Courtesy of the Garden Club of Virginia)

A section of the panelling in the Great Hall: Original hardware,
brass locks, and H-hinges imported from England . . . .53

An original lock showing British trade-mark 56

View from one of the dining-room windows looking toward the river 59

To the robust English character of the early Stratford gardens there
was added by Thomas Lee a certain Eastern quality, a tropic rich-
ness 60

Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston

The first mistress of Stratford Hall: Hannah Ludwell Lee, wife of
Thomas Lee and mother of the famous Lees 63

From the original portrait by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of Robert E. Lee Memorial
Foundation)

Facsimile of the Treaty of Lancaster, 1744 66-6 7

(Courtesy of Virginia State Library)

Honorable Thomas Lee, ” President of the Council and Commander
in Chief of Virginia” 69

From the original portrait by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of Robert E. Lee Memorial
Foundation)

Facsimile of the instructions from Governor Gooch providing for
the appointment of the Virginia commission to negotiate the
Treaty of Lancaster 72-73

(Courtesy of Virginia State Library)

Facsimile of first page of original letter, dated W hit e hall [ London}
September 1, 17 SO, to President Lee from the Board of Trade and
Plantations 78

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts)

The inscription on the monument to Thomas Lee at Pope’s Creek
Church, written by Richard Henry Lee. Preserved in a memo-
randum book by Thomas Lee Shippen 84-85

(Courtesy of Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen)

The grave of Thomas and Hannah Ludwell Lee in Burnt House

Fields . . * 86

Northeast dependency of the Great House, probably the Stratford

School 90

Captain Henry Lee of Lee Hall and Leesylvania, father of Light-
Horse Harry Lee and guardian of the Stratford children ... 93

From an original portrait by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of J. Collins Lee and Virginia
Historical Society)

Vista from the Great Hall through the east wing, showing the gardens 103
The old stable at Stratford before reconstruction 116

Photograph by Lucy Lamar Galleries

Pedigree of Dotterel 119

(Courtesy of American Remount Association)

Original specipcations for coach ordered in London by Alderman
William Lee for his sister, Hannah Lee Corbin 121

(Courtesy of R. Stafford Murphy)

A typical Virginia landing of the eighteenth century, showing corner
of tobacco warehouse and other waterfront structures . . . .128

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Maps)

The site of Stratford Landing 132

A relic of the skirmish at Stratford Landing during the Revolution . 142
Richard Henry Lee’s Independence Resolutions introduced in Con-
tinental Congress, fune 7 , 1776 146

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts)

The Declaration of Independence, showing the signatures of Richard
Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee 151

(Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Map of Virginia at the time of the American Revolution . 152-153

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Maps)

Richard Henry Lee 155

From the original portrait by Charles Willson Peale, now in the possession of Mrs. Lanier
McKee. (Courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library)

Letter of Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson to the Governor
of Virginia

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts)

159

Original verse written by Nancy Ship pen (Mrs. Henry Beekman

Livingston ) to her uncle, Francis Light foot Lee 161

(Courtesy of Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen)

The Penn-Lee letter to the Continental Congress 167

(Courtesy of New York Times)

Signature sheet of the Olive Branch Petition .... 168-169

From facsimile copy in Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress

Original letter to the public written by Arthur Lee in Paris . 174- 175

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts)

Arthur Lee 179

From the original portrait by Charles Willson Peale, now in possession of the Virginia
Historical Society, to which it was presented by Charles Carter Lee. (Courtesy of Virginia
Historical Society and Cook Photographers, Richmond)

Signature sheet of the Treaty of Alliance between the United States

and France, signed February 6, 1778 184-185

(Courtesy of Department of State, Division of Archives)

The site of Chantilly on the Potomac, home of Richard Henry Lee . 188
Excerpt from original letter of Hannah Lee Corbin to her sister
Alice 200-201

(Courtesy of Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen)

View of the Stratford gardens through English beeches . . . 203

Vista from the Great Hall through the west wing, looking toward

the old Cliff Road to the river 207

The playground of Matilda and Flora 221

The old beeches at Stratford 224

Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston

Gold medal presented to Henry Lee by Act of Congress . . . 233

From E. J. Lee’s Lee of Virginia, p. 332

Colonel Harry Lee of the Legion 237

(Courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical Society)

Across the broad expanse of fragrant gardens was the family burial
ground of the Stratford Lees 245

Closing paragraph of Henry Lee’s oration on the death of General
Washington 248

(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Rare Book Collection)

Nancy Lee (Mrs. Charles Lee), daughter of Richard Henry Lee . . 254

From the original portrait by Sully, now in the possession of Mrs. Joseph Packard.
(Courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library)

Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia 265

From the original portrait by Saint Memin. (Courtesy of Lewis P. Woltz, Photographer, and
Corcoran Gallery of Art)

The third Philip Ludwell Lee, heir of Stratford 267

From the original miniature. Now in the possession of Mrs. Hugh Antrim of Richmond,
Virginia. (Courtesy of the owner)

xxii

Carter Coat of Arms 282

The fruits and shades of Stratford 284

East passage leading from the Great Hall to the Mother’s Room . 298

Guardian angels of the Nursery of Stratford 310

West passage leading to the parlor and the Cherry Tree Room . .31 6

Portrait of William Pitt which hung at Stratford 319

From engraving owned by John Leeds Bozman. Original allegorical portrait by Charles
Willson Peale at Westmoreland County Courthouse, Montross, Va. (Courtesy of Mrs.

John Henry King Burgwin [Ruth Leeds Kerr])

Mildred Lee Childe, youngest child of Light-Horse Harry and
Ann Lee 333

From a plate of the original drawing. (Courtesy of Mrs. Mildred Lee Francis)

Pitzhugh Coat of Arms 344

Major General Henry Lee (Light-Horse Harry ) 351

From the original portrait by Gilbert Stuart, now in the possession of Mrs. Mildred Lee
Francis, Annapolis, Maryland. (Courtesy of the owner)

The grave at Dun gene ss 361

The entrance road to Stratford 368

The Great House deserted 378

Photograph by Lucy Lamar Galleries

William Henry Pitzhugh of Ravensworth 389

Portrait by Sully. (Courtesy of Dr. George Bolling Lee and Frick Art Reference Library)

Mrs. William Henry Pitzhugh of Ravensivorth 391

Portrait by Sully. (Courtesy of Dr. George Bolling Lee and Frick Art Reference Library)

Anne McCarty Lee, wife of Major Henry Lee 401

Portrait by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of Honorable and Mrs. Charles E. Stuart)

Lucy Grymes Lee, Mrs. Bernard M. Carter, daughter of Light-Horse
Harry Lee and his first wife, Matilda Lee 407

From the original portrait by an unknown artist. Now in the possession of Mrs. Morgan
La Montague. (Courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library)

McCarty Coat of Arms 410

William Clarke Somerville 413

From the original portrait by Saint Memin. (Courtesy of James A. Somerville and
Corcoran Gallery of Art)

The gardens were revived 4l6

Washington Coat of Arms 421

The path leading to the herb garden 428

The Last Wing of the Mansion 430

The West Wing of the Mansion 432 '

The grave of Elizabeth McCarty Storke 436

xxiii

Bleak and gaunt the Great House stood 444

Growing in the broken chimney caps were weeds and bushes . . 446

Photograph by Theodore Irving Coe

The chimney towers of Stratford Hall 452

Photograph by Theodore Irving Coe

The old spring 456

Alcove in the dining room 463

Eighteenth century bird house under the eaves of the southwest out-
building 464

Ruins of the vault in the family burial ground 468

Eire insurance policies on Stratford taken out by Light-Horse Harry
Lee 472-473

(Courtesy Mutual Assurance Society of Richmond and Robert A. Lancaster, Jr.)

Interior of kitchen before restoration 474

The old kitchen restored 480

The old kitchen and the south ha-ha wall. First building at Stratford
to be restored 482

Interior of kitchen after restoration 484

Original inside staircase leading from ground floor to East Passage
on main floor 487

Floor plans of Stratford Hall 490-491-492-493

Drawn by Fiske Kimball. (Courtesy of Mr. Kimball)

The octagon summer house restored on its original foundations . . 494

"On the Potomac doth a mansion stand.” 498-499

Description of Stratford from "Virginia Georgies," by Charles Carter Lee. (Courtesy of
Robert Randolph Lee)

The east ha-ha wall and the repaired smokehouse 502

The restoration plan of Stratford gardens by Morley J. Williams . 508

(Courtesy of the Garden Club of Virginia)

Mrs. George Washington Parke Custis (Mary Lee Eitzlough), first
mistress of Arlington House, mother of Mrs. Robert E. Lee . .515

From the original portrait by an unknown artist. Now in the possession of Dr. Bolling
Lee. (Courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library)

Alary Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee 518

(Courtesy of Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation)

Robert E. Lee in dress uniform of a Lieutenant of Engineers (about
1831 ) 520

Portrait credited to Beniamin West, Jr. (Courtesy of Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation)

xxiv

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

I ALWAYS think of myself as a rediscoverer of Stratford. Probably
there were many others who, like myself, stumbled upon the Strat-
ford of twenty years ago. I knew of its existence, of course, but not
its precise location. When, therefore, a party of us who were serving in
the Wilson administration landed from the small presidential yacht
Sylph at an apparently uninhabited section of the lower Potomac and
Stratford appeared before us as we strolled inland, we felt the thrill of
a Balboa upon a peak of Darien. The amazing dignity of the great house,
of the outbuildings and barns, transcended the want of repair and the
lack of accessibility. Many times after that I returned to visit Doctor
Stuart and to wander with him through the rooms and then up to the
roof to see if aught remained of the original glimpse of the Potomac.

It is right and fitting that Stratford is being made once more a shrine
to which the lovers of the history of our land can come from every part
of the nation. It is a shrine dedicated to a great American family and
especially to the memory of that very great gentleman, Robert E. Lee.
It is equally a permanent memorial to a brave, young civilization for
which modern America will always be grateful.

■

BOOK ONE

THE COLONIAL BACKGROUND OF STRATFORD HALL

(1635 - 1760)

CHAPTER I: THE PROVENANCE OF THE STRATFORD LEES

CLOSE to the sea-wall along the southwestern edge of Jamestown
Island, near Pitch and Tarr Swamp of old record, lie the foun-
dations of Philip Ludwell’s three houses. Next to them is all that
remains of the fourth State House, also built by Ludwell on the site of
the building destroyed by Nathaniel Bacon and his followers in the
revolution of 1676. Familiar figures in the capitol at Jamestown, were
Colonel Ludwell himself, Colonel Richard Lee of Gloucester County,
Henry Corbin of Middlesex, Benjamin Harrison of Surry, Theodorick
Bland of Charles City, and Edmund Jenings of York. These six "top-
ping” men, Britain’s '"trusty and well beloved,” were ""Old Standers” in
that country, to use the phrase of their friend and fellow councillor,
Robert Beverley. With the exception of Philip Ludwell and Benjamin
Harrison, each of them was the first of his family to come from England
to the Colony.

The marriages that took place among the members of these families,
late in the seventeenth century or early in the eighteenth, draw a pattern
of relationships which has an important bearing on this record and on
the history of Virginia and the United States. For these six men were
the forebears of the Stratford Lees.

Philip Ludwell’s son, Philip, married Hannah, daughter of Benjamin
Harrison; Lee’s son, Richard, married Laetitia, the daughter of Henry
Corbin. Their son, Henry Lee, married Mary, granddaughter of Theo-
dorick Bland. Light-Horse Harry Lee1 of the Revolution, father of Rob-
ert E. Lee, was their descendant. Through his mother came the Jenings
strain.

The fifth son of Richard and Laetitia Lee was Thomas, who became
President and Commander in Chief of Virginia, one of the important
colonials of his generation, "'to Country and to Court alike a Friend.”
the man through whose enterprise the vast region of the Ohio basin
was opened to English settlement. Thomas Lee married Hannah Lud-
well, the daughter of the second Philip Ludwell. They were the
builders of Stratford Hall, the Great House in Westmoreland County,
which had a significant part in a hundred years of America’s history.

Thomas and Hannah Lee were the parents of eleven children, of
whom eight survived to take a constructive part in the upbuilding of
Virginia and the making of this nation.

1Light-Horse Harry Lee was not born at Stratford. He became master there at the close of
the Revolution and in this relation is accounted a Stratford l.ee.

[1]

Ancient 3Wn5atiom? at ^amestoron.^a.

(-Discoutici aub §0(nfificj in 1903.

Sca&

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I ;

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Qomtofr cJiowdi,. T'Wlfy &h4*vM °Jhu StoudM

State - tHomm

The foundations of Philip Ludwell's three houses at Jamestown, Virginia.

Their eldest son, Philip, succeeded his father as a member of the
King’s Council and as owner of Stratford. Under his hand, the planta-
tion saw further industrial and agricultural expansion and "social ele-
gance.’’ It became a center for tobacco shipments for the Northern
Neck and was one of the early stud farms of the Tidewater section.

The elder daughter, Hannah, was a woman of remarkable vigor of
intellect and strength of purpose. Indifferent to censure, she stood boldly
for personal and political freedom, and according to tradition, gave
ardent support to her younger brothers in their struggle for colonial
rights.

The youngest daughter, Alice, married William Shippen of Philadel-
phia, the director general of the hospitals of the Continental Army, and
made a home and headquarters in that city for her brothers and their
Virginia colleagues of the Continental Congress.

The other sons of Thomas and Hannah Lee were Thomas Ludwell,
Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, William, and Arthur. They were
among Virginia’s great champions of liberty during the war for Ameri-
can independence. Through them the Stratford estate became a center
of patriot activities some years before the Revolution, the place in
which originated a number of national and state documents bearing on
the destiny of this nation, and where many of the letters of the Secret
Correspondence Committee of the Revolution had their source. President
John Adams spoke of these five Lees of Stratford as "that band of
brothers, intrepid and unchangeable, who, like the Greeks at Ther-

[2]

A mapp of Virginia difco tired to yK Hills: Drawn by Virginia Ferrar in 1631. This was
the year when the first grant was given to Nathaniel Pope for the Clifts, later named
Stratford Plantation.

mopylae stood in the gap, in the defense of their country, from the first
glimmering of the Revolution in the horizon, through all its rising light,
to its perfect day.”

Through their Virginia forebears of the seventeenth century, meet-
ing in the State House on Jamestown Island, and through both sides
of their immediate ancestry were handed down to the Stratford clan
high ideals of self-respect, of human rights and liberties. Royalists
though these six Old Standers were, they were loyal to the Stuarts and to
the first representatives of the House of Hanover, but they were loyal
with the dignity of free men who must have a voice in the governance of
their affairs.

The second Richard Lee, grandfather of the Stratford Lees, was also
high in the affairs of state. He served in the last session of the State
House at James City, representing the county of Westmoreland. Like
his father, he had seen the institutions of the first legislative body on
the American continent transmitted in spirit from one State House to
another; "that they might have a hande in the governinge of themselves
. . . yt was graunted that a generall Assemblie shoulde be helde yearly

[3]

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

once, whereat were to be present the Gov*' and Counsell wth two Bur-
gesses from each Plantation, freely to be elected by the Inhabitants
thereof, this Assemblie to have power to make and ordaine whatsoever
lawes and orders should by them be thought good and profitable for
our subsistance.”

When, at the turn of the century, the capital was removed from
Jamestown to Williamsburg by an act which Richard Lee helped to pass,
he was among the legislators to place within the fabric of the new
capital these same resolves. When Independence Hall was built in Phila-
delphia nearly three generations later, the Lees of Virginia carried to it
the spirit of these resolves.

So it was not strange that the second Richard Lee’s grandson, Richard
Henry Lee, should move the Declaration of Independence and that his
great-grandson, Light-Horse Harry Lee, should die a martyr to civil
liberties.

To understand the genesis of this passion for liberty, something of the
background of the men who transmitted it to the Stratford Lees must
be known, something of their personal records, their spirit and their
stamina.

Richard Lee, founder of the Lee family in Virginia, was near
enough to the stirring times of great Elizabeth to have in his blood the
urge to sail strange seas, to explore and settle new lands. His uncle,
Gilbert Lee of Essex, a leather merchant trading with Virginia, had
fought against the Armada. The exact date of Richard Lee’s emigration
to America is unknown. The time of his arrival has always been placed
at 1641, since this year marks the first public record of his presence in
the Colony and his first official appointment, that of clerk of the court
of Jamestown. But a probable residence in Virginia for several years
prior to this date is shown by notation in Hotten’s Register of the names
of all the Passengers to America who Passed from the Port of London
in the year 1634-35 :2

2d May, 1635

Theis under-written names are to be transported to ye Barbadoes imbarqued
in the Alexander Capt: Burche, and Gilbert Grimes, Mr P. Certificate from the
Minister where they late dwelt The Men took the oaths of Allegeance and
supremacie die et anno prd.

Richard Lee 22 yeres

Robert Lee 33 yeres

-John Camden Hotten, The Original Lists, etc., London, 1874, p. 73-75. From MSS. in
Public Record Office, London.

The Honorable Colonel Richard Lee of Stratford-Langthorne, Essex, England, and of
Virginia: progenitor of the Stratford Lees : from the original portrait by an unknown
artist.

THE PROVENANCE OF THE STRATFORD LEES

There is every likelihood that the Richard Lee named is the great-
grandfather of the Stratford Lees. Barbados was the first port of call
for many Virginia colonists. The record seems also to confirm a tradition
in the Lee family that their ancestor in Virginia came to the colonies
with a brother and that both settled in York County. It coincides with
what is known of the emigrant Richard Lee. This is indeed very little,
for records of his birth and baptism are missing. Possibly they were de-
stroyed in the great London fire. The only statement of the parentage of
Richard Lee is in an old family Bible, formerly at Cobbs Hall, Nor-
thumberland County, Virginia, where he is described as the son of Rich-
ard Lee of Nordley Regis in Shropshire. The ages of the Richard and
Robert Lee named in the 1635 licenses "to go beyond the seas’’ would
place Richard’s birth in 161 3 and Robert’s in 1602. Thus they might
easily be the sons of Richard and Elizabeth Bendy Lee.

According to the College of Heralds, Richard Lee, father of Richard
Lee of Virginia, was one of the eight sons of John Lee of Coton, Shrop-
shire, and Joyce Romney, his wife.3 The record of his baptism at Alveley,
Shropshire, is dated October 6, 1563; that of his marriage to Elizabeth
Bendy, also at Alveley, bears the date October 21, 1599. He owned a
farm in Shropshire called Nordley Regis, part of the original manor of
Coton, but shortly after his marriage, says the Shropshire genealogist,
H. Edward Forrest, Lee bought another farm at Stratford-Langthorne in
Essex and went there to live.

Documents preserved in the courthouses of York and Gloucester
counties in Virginia mention Richard and Robert Lee jointly and show
grants of land in which they both figure. A patent was granted to Robert
Lee for 540 acres in Gloucester County: "Beginning at a red oak by Mr.
Thornton’s path and to a white oak by Colonel Lee’s Horse Path and to
a branch by the said Robert Lee’s plantation; 200 acres thereof formerly
granted to Colonel Richard Lee, on the 17th of May, 1655, and by him
assigned to the said Robert Lee, on the 5th of February, 1657, and the
remaining 340 acres for the transportation of seven persons, &C.”

The family tradition referred to in Lee of Virginia is that Richard
Lee’s brother was dissatisfied and returned to England. For whatever
reason he makes no further appearance in surviving records.

If the Richard Lee of the 1635 license be identified as the Virginia
ancestor of the Stratford Lees, he may have been in this country several
years before his clerkship in 1641. From this date on, however, there is

'See Supplementary Records, I : Ancestors of the Lee of Shropshire.

8 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

no more obscurity or uncertainty about the Richard Lee who became the
founder of the Lee family of this record. Of the many other Lees, possi-
bly relatives, possibly not, who also settled in York and Gloucester
counties at this same period, but little is known.

Richard Lee’s first home in Virginia was on Gloucester Point opposite
the early settlement which later became Yorktown. According to the
family records, he lived there after his arrival in the Colony. His first
grant of land was in another locality of Gloucester County. This was a
plantation of one thousand acres granted to Lee, August 10, 1642, by
Captain Sir William Berkeley, then Governor of Virginia, "being due
unto him (Richard Lee Gent,) for his owne p’sonal Adventure his wife
Anne and John Francis and by assignment from Mr. Thomas Hill,
Florentine Paine and Wm. Freeman of their right of land for the
Transportation of Seaventeen p’sons.”

The enchanting beauty of this part of Virginia moved him to name
his plantation Paradise. Here he built the store and tobacco warehouses
mentioned in early chronicles of Gloucester, oldest of the counties on
the peninsula between the York and Rappahannock rivers. Lee con-
tinued to obtain grants to other lands northward in Lancaster, Northum-
berland, and later in Westmoreland and Fairfax, the frontier regions
of the Potomac. Among the lands he patented were those later acquired
by the Washingtons, a part of which formed the original tract of what
later became the Mount Vernon estate. Colonel Lee named his plan-
tation at Dividing Creek in Northumberland County, Cobbs Hall.

Like many other planters, he engaged in commerce. He had an interest
in two vessels, Elizabeth and Mary, plying between England and Vir-
ginia. By the year 1659 Colonel Lee had "a faire estate in Virginia,’’ ac-
cording to John Gibbon,4 who visited him and records: "The product of
his Tobacco amounted to £2000 per annum.” This, added to the annual
rent of 800 pounds he received from his Stratford estate in England,
placed him among the affluent planters of the Colony.

From the minor office of court clerk he rose rapidly in political posi-
tion in the Colony. By December of the same year in which he served as
clerk of court he was clerk of the Council. Later he became high sheriff
of York County and Burgess from York. From 1643 to 1649 he was also
serving as Attorney General of Virginia, being the first of whom there
is record to hold this office. In 1649 Lee became Secretary of State and
eleven years later a member of the Council.

‘Member of the College of Heralds ; father of Gibbon the historian.

THE PROVENANCE OE THE STRATFORD LEES

Richard Lee is described by his great-grandson, William Lee, as "a
man of good stature, comely visage, an enterprising genius, a sound
head, vigorous spirit and generous nature.”

Colonel Lee’s association with Governor Berkeley was always close.
In 1649, when the grim news of the beheading of Charles the First
reached Jamestown, Lee, as Secretary of State, was evidently appointed
bv Governor Berkeley to deliver an invitation to Charles the Second
to come to Virginia. This interesting voyage is spoken of by John Gib-
bon, who left this record in his Introductio Ad Latinam Blasoniam:

"A great part of Anno 1659, till February the year following, I lived
in Virginia, being most hospitably entertained by the Flonourable Col-
lonel Richard Lee, some time Secretary of State there; and who after the
King’s martyrdom hired a Dutch vessel, freighted her himself, went to
Brussels, surrendered up Sir William Barcklaies old commission (for
the Government of that Province) and received a new one from his
present Majesty (a loyal action and deserving my commemoration).”
In reference to Virginia’s invitation to Charles the Second and its
reception by his Majesty, John Esten Cooke says:

The great body of the Virginia population was unquestionably Cavalier fin
sympathy], and the restoration of the royal authority in England was accom-
panied by its restoration in Virginia; but the latter did not precede the former.
There is no doubt whatever that if the Virginians could have restored the King
earlier they would have done so; and Berkeley, who is known to have been
in close communication and consultation with the leading Cavaliers, had sent
word to Charles II in Holland, toward the end of the Commonwealth, that he
would raise his flag in Virginia if there was a prospect of success. This incident
has been called in question. It is testified to by William Lee, Sheriff of London,

. . . [a great-grandson] of Richard Lee, Berkeley’s emissary, as a fact

within his knowledge. Charles declined the offer, but was always grateful to
the Virginians. The country is said to have derived from the incident its name
of the 'Old Dominion,” where the King was King, or might have been, before
he was King in England; and the motto of the old Virginia shield, "En dat
Virginia quartam,” in allusion to England, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia, is
supposed to have also originated at this time.

Although he was an ardent Loyalist, Colonel Richard Lee did not
hesitate to oppose certain policies of Charles II which he held to be dis-
advantageous to Virginia. In the British Museum is a copy of the Vir-
ginia Remonstrance (March 28, 1663) against the King’s granting lands
in the Northern Neck to some of his favorite lords, which Lee signed
with Berkeley, Francis Moryson, Thomas Ludwell, Nathaniel Bacon,
John Carter, Theodore [Theodorick] Bland, Henry Corbvn, and others.

Huilwll

Corbiit

IF ood carving of Lee Arms on the door of
old Cobbs Hall, home of the first Rich
ard Lee.

THE PROVENANCE OF THE STRATFORD LEES

Colonel Lee had a family of six sons and two daughters. The sons he
placed at school or college in England. At one time his entire family
appear to have lived there, and Richard made frequent voyages back
and forth from Virginia. His last voyage was in 1663, when he made his
will. Returning to Virginia, he died at Cobbs Hall March 1, 1664, and
was buried there.

Proof of the immediate locality in England from which the emigrant
Richard came is found in his will: . .1, Colonel Richard Lee, of

Virginia, and lately of Stratford Langton, in the County of Essex,
Esquire ...” This estate he ordered to be sold immediately after his
death and improvements made on his Virginia plantations from the pro-
ceeds of the sale. "Also my will and earnest desire is that my good
friends will with all convenient speed cause my wife and children . . .
to be transported to Virginia.”

Further reference to Colonel Lee’s English home appears in a court
document dated some nine years later "executed by Thomas Youell of
Nominy in Westmoreland and Anne Youell, wife of Ye s^ Thomas,
one of ye daughters of Coll: RiclH Lee late of Stratford Langthorn in
Ye Co: of Essex deceased: Deed of release unto John Lee dated 23d
June, 1673, in which they relinquish all claim to any share in the estate
of Colonel Richard Lee.”

Lee’s Stratford estate in England which was sold was originally a part
of the demesne lands of the ancient manor of Westham, site of the
Abbey of Stratford-Langthorne"’ (which had been founded in 1135, and
dissolved in 1539).

Westham Manor, or parish, was divided into four wards, of which
Stratford-Langthorne was one. Stratford itself was divided into the
Grove, Angel Lane, and Maryland Point, a part of Stratford Green.
Situated in the Grove was an old mansion called Stratford House."
While this ancient house itself is not specifically mentioned in any record
as having been the estate purchased by Richard Lee of Shropshire for his
new home in Essex, it might readily have been so. It was evidently the
one prominent dwelling in Stratford-Langthorne.

The designation of Maryland Point in Stratford-Langthorne is not
without its significance: "[This] is a cluster of Houses near Stratford:
the first of them were erected by a Merchant who had got fortune in

'See Supplementary Records, II : Stratford-Langthorne.

'The ancient dwelling, Stratford House, became the residence of Sir John Henniker, baronet,
in the year 1765, a little over a hundred years after Richard Lee of Virginia ordered his estate
of Stratford sold. This is the ownership to which it is chiefly ascribed in published references.

12 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

that colony, from whence they took their name.” Might not this have
referred to Richard Lee of Virginia? He patented lands in the province
of Maryland as well as in Virginia. It is an interesting point.

Further research into the annals of Westham Manor may prove that
this original Stratford House was the birthplace of the founder of the
Lees of Virginia. There must have been some very close association and
endearing memories in the Lee family of Virginia with Stratford House
in England, for Thomas, the grandson of Richard Lee, took the name
for his home on Potomac.

The Honorable Philip Ludwell, Esquire, was "the immediate Vice-
regent and Representative of the King, in ordinary and extraordinary,”
to use the words of Thomas Jefferson.7 This characterization evidently
referred to the period when he was serving as Proprietary Governor of
the Carolinas. He emigrated from England to Virginia about 1660 and
took a leading part in the affairs of government. His term of official
service for Virginia embraced fifty years.

The wealth and power of his eldest brother Thomas, who had come
to the Colony some years before, doubtless had its influence in opening
opportunities for Philip. Thomas was serving as Secretary of State when
his younger brother arrived, and was later President of the Council.
His plantation, Rich Neck, adjoined Governor Berkeley’s estate, Green
Spring, a Tudor mansion known as the Castle, according to a memo-
randum of Thomas Lee Shippen. From this first great house in the
American colonies, built in 1646, were derived several of the archi-
tectural features of Stratford Hall, built over three generations later.

Not only were Thomas Ludwell and Governor Berkeley friends,
neighbors and political associates — reactionaries from Nathaniel Bacon’s
point of view — but they had the bond of a still earlier association. Both
came from the same place in England, Bruton Parish, Somersetshire.
Historic Bruton Church in Williamsburg perpetuates the name. "There
can be no doubt,” says Meade in Old Churches, Ministers and Families
of Virginia, "but that the name Bruton was given to the parish in
honour of Thomas Ludwell, who came from a place of that name in
England. Originally the parish was called Middletowne, when, in 1658,
the inhabitants of Middle Plantation (Williamsburg) and of Harop
Parish (between it and Warwick) were united into one.”

The genesis of the Ludwells in England has points of historic interest,

vSee Supplementary Records, III : Ludwell.

Sir William Berkeley, Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia: from the original por-
trait by an unknown artist, now in the possession of Maurice duPont Lee, Green-
wich, Connecticut . (After 1730 this portrait hung in Stratford Hall.)

Mrs. Philip Ludwell, Lady Berkeley (Frances Culpeper ) , widow of Sir William Berkeley:
from the original portrait by an unknown artist, now in the possession of Maurice
duPont Lee, Greenwich, Connecticut. (After 1730 this portrait hung in Stratford
Hall.)

THE PROVENANCE OE THE STRATFORD LEES 15

owing to their family’s connection with the Cavalier family of Cotting-
ton. According to Lee of Virginia, the Ludwells were of German
origin. William G. Stanard says they were mercers by trade and settled
in Somersetshire during the early seventeenth century. The English
progenitor of their family married Jane Cottington, daughter of an
ancient and honorable house of Bruton. A kinsman of this family was
the diplomat and statesman, Baron Francis Cottington, whose tomb is
in Westminster Abbey. In 1643 he was Lord Treasurer of England. Un-
doubtedly this connection was of service in the new world to Thomas
and Philip Ludwell.

Thomas Ludwell never married, but Philip was twice married. His
first marriage, about 1667, was to Lucy, daughter of the "valiant Cap-
tain” Robert Higginson. Of this marriage were born his son Philip, and
his only daughter, named for his mother, Jane Cottington. An interest-
ing relationship with a famous American family developed through the
marriage of this daughter to Colonel Daniel Parke, Junior, by which
she became the ancestress of Nelly Custis and of George Washington
Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington.

Philip Ludwell’s first wife died about 1675. This is the time, in the
Lee family records, that he moved from his first house, Carter’s Creek
Plantation, to Jamestown. In 1680 Ludwell married Lady Berkeley,
widow of Governor Berkeley. Through this marriage he eventually be-
came the owner of Green Spring Plantation.

From his portrait, which hung at Stratford for many years, Philip
Ludwell was evidently a fine figure. Tall, slender, and distinguished, he
was a man of affairs and a born diplomat. It is apparent that he was
astute, sharp as a briar in the reading of men and events, and resolute
in carrying out his objectives. The year after his marriage, Colonel Lud-
well and his lady went to England. Through Lord Culpeper, then
Royal Governor of Virginia and one of his wife’s kinsmen, Ludwell
was appointed to the Council to succeed Colonel Daniel Parke, who had
recently died.

Several years later Ludwell was again in England as an emissary from
Virginia to protest against Lord Effingham’s exactions. He delivered
his petition from the "Commons of Virginia represented by the House
of Burgesses” on March 28, 1689, and was successful in obtaining practi-
cally all of the measures asked for. For his services he received from the
House of Burgesses a vote of thanks for "his indefatigable and prosper-
ous endeavours,” together with two hundred and fifty pounds sterling

16 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

to be paid him as an acknowledgment from the country and reimburse-
ment of his great and necessary expenses. At the same time, he was ap-
pointed Governor of Carolina and held office there three years, appar-
ently bringing to that disturbed Colony a period of comparative peace.
In 1690 he was appointed Lord Culpeper's agent for the Northern Neck,
so that his power and prestige were further increased. Three years later
he was made Proprietary Governor of the Carolinas, but a year’s experi-
ence of their quarrels made him glad to return in 1694 to Virginia.

Of the service given to Virginia by the Ludwells, Bruce says in his
Institutional History of Virginia:

Thomas Ludwell always a loyal supporter of the royal cause, was promoted
to the place in March, 1 660-1, and continued to hold the office, apparently
without interruption, until September, 1676, when he seems to have been
reappointed, but only filled the position for a short time, as Daniel Parke soon
became Secretary by the nomination of Governor Jeffreys. Parke was followed
by Philip Ludwell; and Ludwell by Nicholas Spencer. These three men were
amongst the most conspicuous citizens of Virginia, whether considered from
the point of view of influential family connections, large wealth, or important
public services.

Henry Corbin, founder of the Virginia Corbins, was prominent as a
planter and in the colonial government at Jamestown. His home in
England was in Warwickshire. In 1645 he married Alice, daughter of
Richard Eltonhead of County Lancaster, England. Like Richard Lee he
settled in Virginia during the middle part of the seventeenth century.
He was serving as Burgess from Lancaster County as early as 1659.
Genealogical records of the families Corbin and Lee show an interesting
family connection in England. As far back as the middle of the fifteenth
century, there was a marriage between Johnannes Lee of Nordley, one
of the ancestors of the Lees, and Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of
Thomas Corbyn. In Virginia this family relationship was repeated with
the marriage of Henry Corbin’s daughter Laetitia to the second Richard
Lee. A younger daughter, Frances, became the wife of Edmund Jen-
ings. The succeeding generations marked several other alliances be-
tween Corbins and Lees of interest in this relation.

Of Benjamin Harrison, representing Surry, it is recorded on his tomb
at Brandon on the James River, that he "was always loyall to his Prince,
and a great benefactor to his country.” He was a just man and a kind
one. Record of his charity and personal force has survived nearly three
centuries. Benjamin Harrison succeeded his father in the House of Bur-
gesses, in 1680, at Jamestown. He was Virginia’s Attorney General in

Conjectural restoration of ancient buildings at Jamestown, Virginia, on the foundations
reputed by Samuel H. Yonge to be the site of the fourth Stale House, Philip Lud-
we/l's three houses, and the country house.

1699. Before the turn of the century he was appointed a member of the
Council and remained a member until his death in 1712. His father,
Benjamin Harrison, founder of the family in Virginia, served as clerk
of the Council in 1633, and at that time he took up various small grants
of land on the south side of the James River. From a portion of his
land the famous Brandon estate was formed, the remainder being pur-
chased from the English owners by his descendant, Nathaniel Harrison.
Through his granddaughter, Hannah Ludwell, who became the wife
of Thomas Lee and mother of the famous Lees, were handed down cer-
tain qualities of character and nobility of thought and act that dis-
tinguished the Harrison strain, and made them loved and respected
among the ancient planters of the James River.

That Theodorick Bland of Westover, "was both in fortune and un-
derstanding inferior to no person of his time in the country” is a state-
ment quoted in Lee of Virginia. Colonel Bland was one of four brothers,
sons of John Bland of London, to emigrate to Virginia. He came bv
rather slow and picturesque stages, being first a merchant in Spain and
then in the Canary Islands, not reaching Virginia until 1653. He pur-
chased the great estate of Westover and made it his home. In 1659-60
Colonel Bland was speaker of the House of Burgesses and in 1666 a
member of the Council. Through his marriage to Anne, daughter of
Richard Bennett, he became allied to one of the most prominent and
influential families of the Colony. When their son Richard’s daughter,
Mary (of Jordan’s Point on James River), became the wife of Henry,
Richard Lee’s son, important strains of the old colonials were mingled.

Edmund Jenings was the Old Stander of this group who represented
York at James City. He was a member of one of the Cavalier fami-
lies of whom Beverley says: "Thus in the time of the Rebellion in
England, several good Cavalier Families went thither [to Virginia] with

[17]

18 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

their Effects, to escape the Tyranny of the Usurper, or Acknowledgement
of his Title. And so again, upon the Restoration, many People of the
opposite Party took Refuge there, to shelter themselves from the King’s
Resentment. But Virginia had not many of these last, because that
Country was famous for holding out the longest for the Royal Family,
of any of the English Dominions.”

Edmund Jenings was born at Ripon, Yorkshire, England in 1659,
the son of Sir Edmund Jenings, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of
Sir Edward Barkham, Lord Mayor of London in 1621-22. He came to
Virginia at an early age, served as Attorney General in 1684, and in 1701
was appointed to the Council of which he became president. He was
twice Secretary of State, and from August, 1706, to June, 1710, was
acting governor. Through his marriage into the Corbin family (to
Frances, sister of Laetitia, wife of his friend the second Richard Lee) he
had a daughter, Frances, who became the wife of Charles Grymes of
Morattico Hall, Richmond County. Their daughter, Lucy Grymes, ac-
cording to a tradition (vouched for by George Washington Parke
Custis, adopted son of George Washington) was "the Lowland Beauty”
of Washington’s youthful verses. She married the son of Henry and
Mary [Bland] Lee, and became the mother of Light-Horse Harry Lee
and his four brothers, all distinguished figures in the history of the
Commonwealth. These names, Lucy Grymes Lee and Edmund Jenings
Lee, occur frequently in succeeding generations of the Lee family.

The second Richard Lee, while Virginia born, was English bred.
Devoted to scholarly pursuits, he was not enthralled, as his father was,
with life in the wilderness. Born probably at the Gloucester plantation,
Paradise, in 1647 he was sent with his brother John to school in England.
There is a family tradition that he entered Oxford at an early age. "He
was so clever,” said his grandson [William], "that some great men of-
fered to promote him to the highest dignities in the Church if his Father
would let him stay in England; but this offer was refused, as the old
Gentleman was determined to fix all his children in Virginia. . . . Rich-
ard spent almost his whole life in study, and usually wrote his notes in
Greek, Hebrew, or Latin ... so that he neither diminished nor im-
proved his paternal estate. . . . He was of the Council in Virginia and
also other offices of honor and profit, though they yielded little to him.”

After his return to Virginia he became, like his father, a Loyalist and

THE PROVENANCE OF THE STRATFORD LEES 19

a supporter of the House of Stuart. But where the first Richard Lee
was zealous in the Loyalist cause, his son appears by comparison to have
been more or less passive. He was, first and last, a man of books — mili-
tary man, planter and Burgess perhaps more by reason of destiny
than of choice. His collection of books at Matholic was one of the
few celebrated libraries of colonial Virginia. While it was not large, it
contained a more complete collection of the classics than any library in
the new world.

Richard Lee succeeded his father in the Council just as his friend the
second Philip Ludwell succeeded his. He represented Westmoreland
where his father had represented Gloucester and Northumberland. "Of
Cople” or "of Matholic” was usually written after his name, as designat-
ing the locality from which he came. Cople was one of the two parishes
of Westmoreland County, where he now lived. Matholic, also known as
Mt. Pleasant, was a plantation of 2,600 acres his father had patented and
which eventually came to him. It was one of many plantations left the
family by his father. His marriage to Henry Corbin’s daughter Laetitia
took place about 1674.

Some three or four years later, when, as a member of the Council,
Lee opposed the measures advocated by Nathaniel Bacon, he was seized
by Bacon’s men and imprisoned. A report to the English government
(under date of the 15th of March, 1677-8) of those who had suffered
by Bacon’s rebellion, states: "Major Richard Lee, a Loyall Discreet
Person worthy of the Place to which hee was lately advanced of being
one of his Majesties Council in Virginia, and as to his loses wee are
credibly informed they were very great and that hee was Imprisoned by
Bacon above seaven weekes together at least 100 miles from his owne
home whereby hee received great Prejudice in his health by hard usage
and very greatly in his whole Estate by his absence.”

Richard Lee seems to have held important posts continually from
about 1678 to his death. Governor Spotswood described him as "a
gentleman of as fair character as any in the country for his exact justice,
honesty and unexceptional loyalty. In all the stations wherein he has
served in this government, he has behaved himself with great integrity
and sufficiency.” Beverley also refers to his effective services and his high
standing, especially in connection with certain of the complications
arising in October, 1688, out of the patent for the Northern Neck.

Richard Lee’s name appears as colonel for both Westmoreland and
Richmond in a list of the principal officers of militia appointed in 1680

20 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

and again in 1699- Among those appointed on this last date for their
respective counties were his colleagues of the Council or House of Bur-
gesses: Philip Ludweli, Edmund Jenings, Robert Carter, George Mason,
and John Custis.8 He is spoken of as "Coll: Richard Lee, of the Horse
in ye counties of Westmoreland, Northumberland, and Stafford.’’ He
was appointed "Naval Officer and Receiver of Virginia Dutys for the
River Potomac," in 1699 by Sir Edmund Andros, governor.

He died in 1714 at Matholic, and was buried in the family burial
ground in the garden — named fifteen years later, when the house burned
down, Burnt House Fields. The grave of his wife is beside his. Bishop
Meade visited Matholic and wrote in his Old Churches, Ministers and
Families of Virginia: "From a tombstone in the Burnt-House Fields,
at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, where are yet to be seen the
foundations of large buildings, are the following:

Hie conditur corpus Richardi Lee, Armigeri, nati in Virginia, filii Richardi
Lee, generosi, et antiqua familia, in Merton-Regis, in comitatu Salopiensi,
oriundi.

In magistratum obeundo boni publici studiosissimi, in literis Graecis et
Latinis et aliis humanioris literaturae disciplinis versatissimi.

Deo, quem, summa observantia semper coluit, animam tranquillus reddidit
xii. mo. die Martii, anno MDCCXIV. aetat. LXVIII.”

Hie, juxta, situm est corpus Laetitiae ejusdem uxoris fidae, filiae Henrici
Corbyn, generosi, liberorum, matris amantissimae, pietate erga Deum, charitate
erga egenos, benignitate erga omnes insignis. Obiit Octob die vi. MDCCVL
aetatis XLIX.

Here lieth the body of Richard Lee, Esq., born in Virginia, son of Richard
Lee, Gentleman, descended of an ancient family of Merton-Regis, in Shropshire.

While he exercised the office of a magistrate he was a zealous promoter of
the public good. He was very skilful in the Greek and Latin languages and
other parts of polite learning. He quietly resigned his soul to God, whom he
always devoutly worshipped, on the 12th day of March, in the year 1714, in
the 68th year of his age.

Near by is interred the body of Laetitia, his faithful wife, daughter of Henry
Corbyn, Gentleman. A most affectionate mother, she was also distinguished by
piety toward God, charity to the poor, and kindness to all. She died on the 6th
day of October, 1706, in the 49th year of her age.

Like the second Richard Lee, the second Philip Ludweli also became
a leading figure in the colonial life of Virginia. From his portrait by
Sir Godfrey Kneller, he appears to have resembled his mother, Lucy
Higginson. He does not seem so sharp or astute as his father, perhaps,
but more friendly and approachable. He succeeded his father in a num-

*Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Colonial Series, 1699.

The second Philip Ludwell, grandfather of the Stratford Lees: from the original portrait
by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

22 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

ber of his official positions. In 1695 he represented James City County
as Burgess and in 1702 became a councillor to Queen Anne. Altogether
he gave about twenty-five years’ official service to the Colony. On No-
vember 11, 1687, he married Hannah, daughter of his father’s friend
and fellow councillor, the Honorable Benjamin Harrison, Esquire, of
Surry. That Hannah Harrison "was very pretty” is a family note sur-
viving over two centuries. Also, that she was "pious, charitable, and hos-
pitable,” and that she lived "an exemplary life in chearful innocence.”

Philip and Hannah Ludwell established their first home at Rich Neck,
the plantation originally belonging to his celebrated uncle Thomas. A
portion of the original Ludwell properties, directly across Archer’s
Creek on the west side, had been sold some years before, and here in
1692, Beverley says: "The College was founded by their late Majesties,
King William and Queen Mary of happy Memory.”

At Rich Neck, according to the record in Lee of Virginia, "on the
5th day of December, anno Dom. 1701, being fryday, about nine of the
clock at night ...” was born to Philip and Hannah (Harrison)
Ludwell, their daughter Hannah. She was destined to become through
her marriage to Thomas Lee the mother of the Stratford Lees. When
Hannah was three or four years old the Ludwells moved to their Green
Spring Plantation, the old Castle, built by Governor Berkeley in 1646.
This was to be their home for the rest of their lives, and their children’s
after them, both Ludwells and Lees, for one hundred and twenty-five
years.

The second Philip Ludwell was affiliated with the college then being
built on lands once belonging to his family. In 1705, and in 1716, he
was a Visitor of the College of William and Mary. His family was con-
nected with that of the founder of the college through the marriage of
his sister-in-law, Sarah Harrison, to Commissary Blair. In the year 1710,
Philip Ludwell was appointed by Governor Alexander Spotswood, Dep-
uty Auditor General for the Colony. His commission reads in part:

. .1 therefore reposing especial trust and confidence in your loyalty,
prudence and fidelity, do . . . constitute . . . you . . . Deputy Auditor
of her Majesty’s revenues. . . . Given under my hand and seal of the
Colony this 14th Day of May, 1710, in the 10th year of her Majestv’s
reign. . . In this capacity he represented Virginia with Nathaniel
Harrison, his brother-in-law, on the commission to settle the boundarv
between Virginia and North Carolina.

THE PROVENANCE OF THE STRATFORD LEES

The Ludwell lands formed a large part of James City County. In-
cluded in these holdings were grants on Jamestown Island, properties
within and without the corporate limits of Williamsburg, and the great
plantations of Rich Neck, Chippokes, and Green Spring. To the second
Philip Ludwell descended the combined properties of Thomas and the
first Philip, and all of the Berkeley estates on both sides of the river
James. The Ludwell grandfather of the Stratford Lees was thus one of
the largest landholders in the James River region.

The lands of the Lees, 16,000 acres in all, lay farther to the north and
east, on the peninsulas between the York, Rappahannock and Potomac
rivers, and were washed by these long tidal reaches of the Chesapeake
Bay, which made the road to England much nearer for the Lees than for
the planters of Surry and James City Counties. Here were the Lee homes,
tobacco plantations, warehouses, storehouses, mills, and shipyards. The
holdings of the Lees and Ludwells contained larger tracts of land than
those of most of their contemporaries. Together, they comprised a small
kingdom.

As the Lees and Ludwells worked for many a year in the first English
settlement on the North American continent, so here at this day lie their
dead. In the churchyard of the first Anglican church in the new world
are the graves of the grandparents of the Stratford Lees, Philip Ludwell,
and Hannah Harrison, his wife. These inscriptions are written on their
tombstones:

Here lies interred the body of PHILIP LLJDWELL
who died the 11th of January 1726 in the 34th year of
his age, sometime auditor of his Majesty’s revenue
and twenty-five years member of the Council.

Under this Stone lies interred
The Body of

Mrs. HANNAH LUDWELL
Relict of

The Hon. Philip Ludwell, Esq.,

By whom She has left
One SON and Two DAUGHTERS.

After a most Exemplary Life
Spent in chearful Innocence

And The continual Exercise of

Piety Charity and Hospitality
She Patiently Submitted to
Death on the 4th Day of April 1731 in the 52(1
Year of Her Age.

24 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Close by, surmounted with the Ludwell arms, is the gravestone of
Lady Frances Berkeley, who was Philip Ludwell’s foster mother from
his earliest childhood. Not far from the graves of Philip Ludwell and
Hannah is that of their grandson, William Lee of Stratford Hall, later of
Green Spring. His daughter Cornelia has recorded his death in these
words: ''Greenspring, Virginia, Saturday, 27 June, 1795, at 20 minutes
after six in the afternoon, my dearest Father was taken from this turbu-
lent and mortal state, after a lingering Illness of ten months, aet. 55 years
9 months and 27 days. On the 28th June at 6 o’clock the precious remains
were interred in James Town Church Yard at the south end of the
graves of my Great Grandfather and Grandmother Ludwell.”

The broken rail fence surrounding the ancient churchyard was torn
down by William Lee’s son, William Ludwell Lee, and John Ambler,
who put up in its place a solid wall, made of fallen brick from the long
deserted church, then fast going into ruin. William Ludwell Lee sur-
vived his father only eight years. He died on the twenty-fourth of Janu-
ary, 1803, in the twenty-eighth year of his age, and was buried beside
his father. In his will he said: "I desire that my body may be committed
to the earth near the grave of my dear respected father in the church
yard at James Town. The spot where I wish to be interred is designated
by two pegs of Sycamore on the south side of the grave of my late
father.”

Thus in the churchyard on Jamestown Island and in Burnt House
Fields of Westmoreland lie the dead of these ancient American families,
who for nearly three centuries meant so much to the Colony of Virginia,
the State and to the Republic. Their records are more closely knit with
those of latter day Jamestown and eighteenth century Williamsburg than
are those of any other colonial family. Here they made their laws, built
up their properties, and made their marriages. All the first influences,
associations, "native parts” of the various strains that bred the Stratford
Lees met and mingled here — Lee and Ludwell, Corbin, Harrison, Bland,
and Jenings. In every sense here was their provenance.

CHAPTER II: THE RECORD OF A YOUNG COLONIAL

H ][ SHOMAS LEE was truly a Virginian, in a sense the first of his
family to be so. His grandfather had been born in England and,
although his father was a native Virginian, he was in spirit always
an Englishman. But Thomas was identified with the Colony, its people
and its interests, from the time he was a very young man. Resourceful,
independent, adventurous, and far-seeing, he made a position for him-
self in the remote region of the Northern Neck before he was twenty-
one years old. The fourth son of Richard and Laetitia Lee of Cople
Parish, County of Westmoreland, he was born in 1690 at Matholic, the
house built by his father on lands patented forty years before by the first
Richard Lee. Matholic Plantation was the first of the Lee houses in
Westmoreland and adjoined the Corbin plantation, Peckatone.

Thomas Lee’s son William wrote of him: ”... with none but a com-
mon Virginia Education, yet having strong natural parts, long after he
was a man, he learned the Languages without any assistance but his own
genius, and became a tolerable adept in Greek and Latin.”

The treasures of his father’s rare library at Matholic must have af-
forded him much pleasure throughout his entire youth. Here were the
classics his father read: Aristotle, Epictetus, Hippocrates, Homer, Thu-
cydides, Xenophon, Hisop, Cesar, Diogenes, Ovid, Virgil — some of
which Thomas also learned to read in the original. There was a collec-
tion of Francis Bacon’s works; a folio of annals of the world, a little
description of the great world, Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the
World, a Treatise of Famous Places, the Annals of Queen Ann. A corn-
pleat book of Sea laws in four volumes, Wing’s art of Surveying, and
Kebb’s fustice of peace, were probably his texts, for in addition to the
languages which he learned, Thomas Lee acquired enough knowl-
edge of the law to serve as justice of the peace and as agent for the most
important estate of the Colony.

In 1711, when only twenty-one, he received the coveted appointment
of resident agent for the Northern Neck, the office held in the late seven-
teenth century by the first Philip Ludwell. Lee succeeded no less a man
than Robert Carter of Corotoman, termed bv Beverley "the greatest
Freeholder in that Proprietary.”

Lady Fairfax, widow of Lord Fairfax, Proprietor of the Northern
Neck, came into possession of this territory after her husband’s death.
The thickly wooded peninsula between the tidal rivers Potomac and

[25]

26 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Rappahannock was a part of this domain. The appointment of young
Lee to take charge of Lady Fairfax’s complicated interests in the Colony
is recorded in Westmoreland Courthouse:

Dec. 7, 1711. Lady Fairfax letter of Atty. to Mr. Lee: Tenth year of the reign
of Queen Ann &c. — Before Wm. Scorey Notary publick in London &c. — ap-
peared Honble Catherine Lady Fairfax of Leeds Castle in County of Kent, relict
of Honble Thomas Lord Fairfax, Baron Camaroon in part of Great Britian
called Scotland — revoking a letter of Attorney by her given to Coll. Robert
Carter of Virginia &c. — Doth now constitute Thomas Lee of the County of
Westmoreland in Virginia, Merchant her true and lawful Attorney — Given
unto him full power and authority for and in the name and to the use of the
sd. constituant — to recover and receive all such quit rents and arrears of quit
rents &c. as she is Lady proprietor of the five Counties of the Northern Neck
&c.

She Hereby promising to hold and ratify for good and valid whatsoever her
sd. Atty. or his substitute shall lawfully doe &c.

Wit: Thomas Jones,

Sam'l Richardson,

Recorded Aug. 27, 1712.

Lee’s appointment was secured through the influence of his uncle,
Thomas Corbin, a tobacco merchant in London, who recommended his
enterprising nephew for the post. Their kinsman, Edmund Jenings, was
the nominal agent, but Thomas Lee, doing the actual work, had com-
plete authority and established his business office at Matholic.

In 1713 Thomas Lee succeeded his father as Naval Officer of the
south side of the Potomac, another remunerative colonial office. A con-
siderable profit pertained to this position, arising, as Beverley says:

From large Fees, upon the entring and clearing of all Shipes and Vessels. . . .

The Naval Officers other Profits, are ten per Cent, for all Moneys by them
received; both on the two Shillings per Hogshead, Port-Duties, Skins and Furs,
and also on the new Imposts on Servants and Liquors, when such Duty is in
being.

In giving such a lucrative and much coveted appointment to young
Thomas Lee, Governor Spotswood said: "When his [Richard Lee’s]
advanced age would no longer permit him to execute to his own satis-
faction the duty of Naval Officer of the same district, I thought I could
not better reward his merit than by bestowing that employment on his
son.” Colonel Richard Lee died the following year.

Thomas Lee’s duties as naval officer and as resident agent for the
"Lady Proprietor” of the Northern Neck, necessitated a wide and exact
geographical knowledge of the country as well as a specific acquaint-
ance with the agricultural and industrial conditions of the community.

These wooded palisades of Stratford on Potomac have a rugged grandeur and mystic
loveliness. In the days of the early Lees eagles nested there.

28 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

He inherited from his grandfather the urge to explore and to learn
about new places. Undoubtedly he knew every plantation, every corner,
every landmark of the several counties comprising the Northern Neck
long before he traversed "the upper country” of Virginia or explored
the Potomac from its mouth to the Great Falls and beyond.

There is one place in Westmoreland County near Indian Tree, some
miles across country from Matholic, that has the rugged grandeur
and mystic loveliness of the Great Falls region and the Virginia hill
country, with the added beauty of an inland sea. For there the Potomac
enters the long reaches of Chesapeake Bay, at least twenty miles above
what is geographically termed the river’s mouth. On the Virginia shores,
high bluffs rise sheer out of the broad run of the salt waters. These thick-
ly wooded palisades of the Potomac extend for several miles between
Pope’s Creek and Currioman Bay. In the days of the early Lees
eagles nested there. More picturesque and romantic than any other
spot on the lower Potomac, the Clifts Plantation seems to have been the
one place young Thomas Lee desired for his home.

At his father’s death, Matholic had been left to Thomas Lee’s eldest
brother, Richard. By the terms of the will, Thomas received "all my
lands in the county of Northumberland at or near the dividing creeks,”
as well as lands in the Province of Maryland adjoining those left to his
brother Philip. The lands in Northumberland, like Matholic, were a
level plain but a few feet above high tide, of one pattern, it seemed,
with the waters surrounding them. To many of the first colonists of the
Tidewater section, all Virginia must have appeared so: "Some People
that have been in the Country,” says Robert Beverley, "without knowing
any thing of it, have affirm’d, that it is all a Flat, without any Mixture
of Hills, because they see the Coast to Seaward perfectly level: Or else
they have made their Judgment of the whole Country, by the Lands lying
on the lower Parts of the Rivers (which, perhaps, they had never been
beyond) and so conclude it to be throughout plain and even. When in
truth, upon the Heads of the great Rivers, there are vast high Hills; and
even among the Settlements, there are some so topping, that I have stood
upon them, and view’d the Country all round over the Tops of the high-
est Trees, for many Leagues together; particularly, there are Maivborn
Hills in the Freshes of ]ames River; a Ridge of Hills about fourteen or
fifteen Miles up Alattapony River; Tolivers Mount, upon Rappahannock
River; and the Ridge of Hills in Stafford County, in the Freshes of
Patowmeck River.”

THE RECORD OF A YOUNG COLONIAL

In this category Thomas Lee would have put the Clifts. This was the
name given the beautiful plantation by its first owner, Lieutenant Colo-
nel Nathaniel Pope, whose daughter Ann became the wife of John
Washington and the ancestress of George Washington.

The original grant for the Clifts shows that one thousand and fifty
acres upon "ye south side of Potomac” were given and granted to Na-
thaniel Pope, Gent, by Sir Edward Diggs, Edq., ye 19th of May 1651. 1,1

The Clifts Plantation was some five or six miles east of Mattox, the
plantation where Colonel Pope lived and died. In his will, probated in
1660, Nathaniel Pope writes: "Unto my son Thomas Pope, my land and
plantation situated upon the Clifts &c. ...” And among the executors
of his will he appoints his son-in-law, John Washington. In 1661 the
patent to the Clifts was renewed by Thomas Pope, who erected "a man
ner house” on the plantation to which there were added "lands, servants,
Cattle stock and appurtenances thereunto belonging &c. ...” After
the death of Thomas Pope, his widow Johnanna returned to her home in
Bristol, England. The Clifts was leased eventually to her brother-in-law,
Nathaniel Pope, mariner, of London.

In 1715, or it may have been still earlier, young Thomas Lee began
negotiations to purchase this plantation, the most commanding site
on the lower Potomac. In February, 1716, the preliminaries for the
purchase had been accomplished — all, at least, that could be done in
Virginia — and Lee got a lease of the property. This lease is among the
documents in the Westmoreland Courthouse, in Book 6 Deeds & Wills:

THIS INDENTURE made 13th February 1716 and third year of the reign
of Lord George —

Between Nathaniel Pope of London, Marriner of the one part and Thomas
Lee of the County of Westmoreland in Virginia, Gent, of the other part —

THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH: That the sd. Nathaniel Pope for the
sum of £375-7-0 of lawful money of Great Britain to him in hand paid by the
said Thomas Lee &c . . . sd. Nathaniel Pope doth hereby acknowledge to the
sd. Thomas Lee and his heirs forever &c. the plantation called the Clifts plan-
tation scituated in County of Westmoreland on Potomac River in Virginia
containing 1,443 Acres and all the lands, stock, servants, Cattle and appurtances
thereunto belonging &c.

Wit.: Jno. Jones, Thomas Walker,

Robert Wells, William Vaughan.

‘At approximately the same time, the first Richard Lee, who was a contemporary of the first
Nathaniel Pope, obtained a grant for the lands in Westmoreland, later called Matholic Planta-
tion, and also a lease for the lands that he formed into his plantation Ditchley. adjoining Cobbs
Hall at Dividing Creek in the county of Northumberland. At that time the greater part of that
region of the Northern Neck was named Northumberland County. Two years later, in 1653,
Westmoreland was formed.

Foundation plan of the Castle at Green Spring, the first Great House in Virginia, built
by Governor Berkeley about 1648. Property of Ludwell and Lee families for 621
years. Discovered and identified in 1926 by Jesse Dimmick.

Before the purchase could be effected, however, it appears that it
was necessary for Thomas Lee to confer with the widow of Richard
Pope. Lee’s desire to possess this property is evidenced by the fact that
he went to England to complete the purchase of it. The record of the
date of his departure is in the Westmoreland Courthouse. It shows
that he held no court as justice of the peace for the year 1716. The
reason given for his not "swearing” for that year is that he "being
designed a Voyage at sea presumes t’ would be of little moment untill
his return to take the aforesaid oath.” Then, on May 31, 1716, is recorded
"Thomas Lee gone on a voyage to sea.”

He went with two projects in mind. In 1716 Thomas and Henry Lee
were living at Matholic, which belonged to their oldest brother, Richard,
then in London. It was necessary to obtain a lease to the property they
then had under cultivation. And Thomas Lee wanted to buy the Clifts.
For these reasons he paid his first visit to England, the country his father
had never left in spirit — the land where his adventurous grandfather
had been born. He remained th^re about a year.

[30]

The Secretary's House, Williamsburg.

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The indenture of lease to Matholic bears the date of November 6,
1716, "between Richard Lee, son of Richard Lee, Sr. late of Copple
parish, Westmoreland County, Gent, and Reuben Welch, Thomas Lee
(party hereto) and Henry Lee of Essex [Westmoreland] County &c. —
on behalf of sd. Thomas Lee do grant and to farm letten unto sd.
Thomas Lee 2600 Acres, same lands late in tenure of Richard Lee, Sr.
&c. to sd. Thomas Lee for term of twenty one years — Sd. Thomas Lee
to pay sd. Martha Lee &c. sum of tenn pounds lawful money annually
of Great Britain at the dwelling house of sd. Martha in Goodman’s
fields in parish of St. Mary White Chappie in the County of Middlesex
&c.”

At this time Thomas Lee wrote his brother in Virginia with reference
to his purpose to buy the Clifts:

London Novr. 13th 1716

Dear Harry

I am Just return’d from Gravesend where I took leave of Phil. Lightfoot in
the George Cap1. Brookes. I am preparing as fast as I can for Virginia. Your
Cloths are just come home. I have bo’t you a Sattin Druggit lin’d, with silver
buttons and Bror. Frs. is a Cloth with mettle buttons both made by my Taylor
& I hope will fit, and both fashionable & I hope will please. I can’t say in wk
Ship they’l Come yet. This is [mutilated] of soe much hurry yh I shall Cer-
tainly forget many things for myself, wk Ever I doe for my friends. I have
bo’t Cousin Tayloe’s India goods and with them some for us, I have ordL [ ?]
to be made with Chains as I remember Netherton’s are, whose friends you may
Tell [ ?] were when I first came with mee & I promissL wh [mutilated] desired,
but they have not bin with me Since, if they [mutilated] I’ll serve ym. for his
sake, You need not Trouble yr Self abh moving for where yo are y° may live
without Interruption & yr. negroes. Our Bror. is well & will doe well, and our
Sister is Certainly the best woman in the world, our Cousins are pretty. I have
had all the kindness from Bror. I cou’d des[ire] I have wrote my friends by all
oppertunitys, & particularly Bror. Phil Engage Chilton to Adamson Y© may
tell him he may depend on the same usage as from our Bror. & he will be as
much obliged: 1 hope to purchase the Clifts [mutilated] Tell Phipps I believe
I’ve a satisfactory answer from his father. With Love to Brors. & Sister &
Cousin to all my neighbours & friends among ym. Jonny Footman [ ?] I long
to see you. Dear Harry I am

Yr. most affe Bror.

Harry Fitzhugh is well of the Small pox.2

Thomas Lee

Before he left England the negotiations for the purchase of the Clifts
were evidently concluded.

His return to Virginia was noted by a court record of August 28,

^Richard Bland Lee Papers. 1700-1825, Library of Congress. The italics are the author’s.

THE RECORD OE A YOUNG COLONIAL

1717: "Thomas Lee, Esq. appointed and nominated the Last Commis-
sion of the Peace— Being in Court moved to take the oath and took his
place.’’ He went back to the courthouse in his home county and took
up his work where he had left off.

According to a memorandum in the Westmoreland County records,
he took possession of the Clifts the following summer: "On the 9th day
of August 1718 Thomas Sorrell being fully thereunto impowered did
give Thomas Lee Esq. within named possession and seizure of the
manner house erected on the second Clift as also by delivering him turf
& twigg on the same plantation in token of livery and seizure of the
whole lands and appurtenances within mentioned and quiett possession
of same &c.”

In 1720 there were but ten settled counties in Virginia. The earlv
settlements on the James, the York, the Rappahannock, and the Potomac
had expanded with the passing generations, and in lower Tidewater
now reached from Chesapeake Bay to the Falls of the James. In other
parts of the Colony was only the occasional log cabin of the frontiers-
man. The greater part of the country still lay unsettled, unexplored.

In this, his thirtieth year, Thomas Lee’s career passed from local to
state affairs, from the Northern Neck to the colonial capital at Wil-
liamsburg. He was elected by the Freeholders of Westmoreland one of
the county’s two representatives in the House of Burgesses. The step
from the simple duties of the local magistrate to that of full legislative
power was a significant one. To Lee now came the responsibility of the
Virginia Burgess for initiating laws and recommending them to the
Council.

During his first term as Burgess, the assembly was in session for a
brief period, from five to six weeks. He was allowed the customary ex-
penses for himself, one servant, two horses and "ferriage.” A record in
the courthouse of Westmoreland shows the payment of his first salary:
"To Thomas Lee, Esq. Burgess Salary for 39 days — 4905 lbs. Tob[acco J.”

Lee was not a stranger in Williamsburg. While he was agent for
Lady Fairfax, he had frequently transacted business at the Capitol and
the secretary’s house. But it was now a new experience to enter the Capi-
tol as one of the lawmakers of the Colony and to have a seat of his own
in the General Assembly. At that time, in the latter years of Governor
Spotswood’s administration, the colonial village had not yet be-
come "a city corprate.” Virgin forest trees still grew in its few streets

The Secretary’s House, Williamsburg.

THE RECORD OF A YOUNG COLONIAL

and in the pleasant gardens around the dwelling houses — little white
houses of frame or brick with green blinds and huge brick chimneys and
dormer windows in their cedar shingled roofs.

Mary Johnston paints the early scene in Pioneers of the Old South ,
quoting certain delightful phrases of Hugh Jones: "Williamsburg was
still a small village, even though it was the capital. Towns indeed, in
any true sense, were nowhere to be found in Virginia. Yet Williamsburg
had a certain distinction. Within it there arose, beneath and between
old forest trees, the college, an admirable church — Bruton Church—
the capitol, the Governor’s house or palace, and many very tolerable
dwelling houses of frame and brick. There were also taverns, a market-
place, a bowling green, an arsenal, and presently a playhouse. The
capitol at Williamsburg was a commodious one, able to house most
of the machinery of state. Here were the Council Chamber, 'where the
Governor and Council sit in very great state, in imitation of the King
and Council, or the Lord Chancellor and House of Lords,’ and the great
room of the House of Burgesses, 'not unlike the House of Commons.’
Here, at the capitol met the General Courts in April and October, the
Governor and Council acting as judges. There were also Oyer and
Terminer and Admiralty Courts. There were offices and committee
rooms, and on the cupola a great clock, and near the capitol was 'a
strong, sweet Prison for Criminals; and on the other side of an open
Court another for Debtors . . . but such Prisoners are very rare, the
Creditors being generally very merciful. ... At the Capitol, at publick
Times, may be seen a great Number of handsome, well-dressed, corn-
pleat Gentlemen. And at the Governor’s House upon Birth-Nights, and
at Balls and Assemblies, I have seen as fine an Appearance, as good
Diversion, and as splendid Entertainments, in Governor Spotswood’s
Time, as I have seen anywhere else.’ ”

The new Burgess from Westmoreland was well acquainted with the
families of the little colonial city and its outlying plantations. Indeed,
many of them were his kith and kin. The Ludwell family he must have
known particularly well, as the friendship and political association be-
tween them was of three generations standing. The Ludwells were then
living at Green Spring near Williamsburg and their house most prob-
ably became a second home for young Lee.

Thomas Lee, himself, was by this time a man of some means and influ-
ence. Perhaps Beverley would have called him an "Old Stander” too.
The remuneration from his various offices was enough to make him quite

THE RECORD OF A YOUNG COLONIAL

independent of the income from Matholic Plantation and that of the
Clifts. He was ready to think of marrying and founding a family
of his own.

Hannah, second daughter of Philip Ludwell, was then in her nine-
teenth year. Perhaps she inherited certain of her mother’s qualities
of manner and charm for which "the Harrison girls of Surry” were
celebrated. In the portrait of her mother bv Sir Godfrey Kneller there
is spirit, sweetness and intelligence.

Thomas Lee was not unobservant. He had remarked to his brother
Henry that their London cousins were pretty and doubtless he found
Hannah Ludwell so. They must have met frequently at the playhouse,
at Bruton Church, and at the Governor’s House, completed in that year,
where the social life of the Colony was beginning to center.

The social life of colonial Williamsburg was its pleasantest phase:
"The number of its permanent population at its most was only a little
more than two thousand. But when the courts and Council and Burgesses
were in session, the leading planters came from all over Tidewater and
brought their families and set up for the ’season.’ Its houses and ordi-
naries were full; its streets were inordinately active with coach, chariot,
chaise and berlin; its church, theater, college and race-course were alive
with citizens and visitors; and there was such social gaiety as for elegance
and sprightliness was not excelled in any other colony.

"The 'season’ took its cachet from the Royal Governor’s entertain-
ments at the Palace. Chief of these, in addition to dinners and courts
and receptions for distinguished visitors, was the annual ball on the
King’s birthnight. On that night the double row of 'noble catalpas,’
which flanked the great 'Palace Green,’ were hung with colored lanterns.
Lighted by them the coaches full of guests found their way to the great
front door.

"Inside the Palace the mirrors and polished floors multiplied the
tapers twinkling in candlesticks, sconces and chandeliers. The eight-
eenth-century company was colorful in the pomp of brocade and the
graceful sweep of full folded silk dresses. Men and women alike piled
their heads with curled and powdered wigs. Jewels sparkled on those
pinnacles as well as on shoe-buckles and knee-clasps, at the necks of the
ladies and in the lace jabots of the men’s courtly costume. . . .

"The theater was early an active and appreciated feature of life at
Williamsburg. Here midway the south side of the Palace Green was
built the first playhouse in the colonies, about 1715. A second theater

Hannah Harrison (Mrs. Philip Ludwell), grandmother of the Stratford Lees: from the
original painting by Sir Godfrey Knellcr.

THE RECORD OE A YOUNG COLONIAL

was built near the Capitol. From a modest, somewhat amateur or at
least local, beginning the Williamsburg theaters eventually drew the
leading companies which came out from England to act on this side of
the Atlantic. Thus throughout the century the 'planter in town’ enjoyed
the plays of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson, Congreve,
Wycherley, Farquhar and other English dramatists until the disturbing
days of the Revolution.” ;

During his first term as Burgess, Thomas Lee evidently made his pro-
posals of marriage. Although he had not as yet his own home to offer a
wife, Matholic, on which he had already renewed the lease, would serve
while he was building on his Clifts Plantation. His marriage to Hannah
Ludwell took place at Green Spring during the last week of May, 1722.
A document termed "The Marriage Bond of Thomas Lee” contains the
following provisions:

Know all men by these presents that Thomas Lee of Westmoreland County
in Virginia, Gentleman, and Francis Lightfoot of Charles Citty County, Gentle-
man, doe owe and stand indebted to Philip Ludwell of Greenspring in James
Citty County in Virginia, Esq., in the Sum of twelve hundred pounds of Lawfull
money of England to the payment whereof well and truely to be made to the
said Philip, his Execut’s, Administrators or Certain Attorney at Greenspring
upon demand, we bind ourselves and either of us, our and either of our heirs,
Execut’s and Administrators, jointly and Severally firmly by these presents sealed
with our Seals and dated this twenty third day of May, Anno Domini one thou-
sand seven hundred and Twenty two.

The Condition of this Obligation is such that whereas a Marriage is intended
to be had and Solemnized betwixt the Above bound Thomas Lee and Hannah,
the Daughter of the above said Philip, with whome the said Thomas is to have
and receive in Marriage six hundred pounds sterling money of England which
was given to her by Philip Ludwell and Benjamin Harrison, Esqrs. her grand-
fathers: now if the said Marriage shall be had and Solemnized and the said six
hundred pounds sterling shall be paid to the said Thomas and he shall depart
this life leaving the said Hannah Surviving, then in that Case if the heirs,
Execut’s or Administrators of the said Thomas or one of them shall pay and
deliver to the said Hannah upon Demand the Sum of six hundred pounds of
good and Lawfull money of England or Such part of the Estate of the said
Thomas as the Law appoints for Widows dowers, which she the said Hannah
shall Choose which Choice shall be made within one Month after such decease,
if thereunto required and not sooner, then this obligation to be void otherwise
to remain in full force. Signed &c.

On the 30th of May, 1722, the following receipt from Thomas Lee
was given:

3From Tidewater Virginia, by Paul Wilstach. Copyright 1929. Used by special permission of
the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

40 STRATFORD HALL: THF GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Virg’a Greenspring May ye 30th, 1722. Received of Philip Ludwell Esq’r.
one set of bills of Exchange drawn by him on Mr. Micajah Perry, merch’t in
London for Six hundred pounds payable to me which is in full payment (when
paid) of one Legacy of one hundred pounds given by Benja: Harrison Esq’r to
Hannah my wife and also of five hundred pounds sterl: given to my s’d wife
by the last will of Philip Ludwell Esq’r her grandfather and I do hereby Requit
ye first named Philip the father of my wife from ye same and every part thereof.

Witness my hand the day and year above written.

This shows that the marriage was solemnized sometime between the
twenty-third and the thirtieth of the month.

From Williamsburg Thomas and Hannah Lee made the long journey
to Matholic. Whether they went by horse or by boat is not recorded.
There were no roads from the colonial capital to the far frontier of
the Northern Neck, only trails through the virgin forest. There were
two rivers to cross before they reached Cople Parish in the county of
Westmoreland. By boat they would have sailed down the River James,
out into Chesapeake Bay. Veering north they would have entered the
mouth of the Potomac. They would have taken in sail on Lee’s creek and
anchored at Matholic Plantation’s own landing. Whichever route thev
took, they passed by hundreds of acres patented by Thomas Lee’s grand-
father in Gloucester, York, Northumberland and Westmoreland coun-
ties.

Matholic was "a large brick house largely inclosed by brick walls.”
It stood near Matholic and Lee’s creeks not far from the town now
known as Hague. Even then, at the time of Thomas Lee’s return with his
bride, it was nearly half a century old, having been built by Lee’s father
when he married Laetitia Corbin. Like William Fitzhugh’s plantation,
Bedford, it was one of the very few large seventeenth century houses
of the Northern Neck.

Although Matholic was evidently intended by young Lee as a tempo-
rary dwelling place while his own home, Stratford Hall, on the Clifts
Plantation was being built, he remained there for seven years. In that
period, before they moved to Stratford, Thomas and Hannah Lee be-
came the parents of four children: Richard, born June 17, 1723; Philip
Ludwell, born February 24, 1726; Hannah Ludwell, born February
6, 1728; and John, born March 28, 1729.

The Potomac side of Westmoreland was always Thomas Lee’s home.
He is frequently spoken of in court records as "Thomas Lee of Po-
tomac.” As already noted he held three remunerative positions in the
Northern Neck before the year 1716. Throughout almost every year

THE RECORD OF A YOUNG COLONIAL

from 1711 to 1749 there is some mention of him in the records of West-
moreland Courthouse. Through them the records of Thomas Lee’s own
service are made clear, and an interesting picture is drawn of the duties,
difficulties and frequent dangers encountered by a countv magistrate in
colonial Virginia.

Here is an instance in 1725, when one Samuel Stroud, "Master of the
Sloop Content,” tries to smuggle "Skins and furrs” from the Potomac
region. Lee promptly brings suit against him, as recorded on page 123
of the Court Orders [1721-1731]: "Thos. Lee, Esq. who as well for and
in the behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King as himself brought Suit at
May Court 1725 against Samuel Stroud, mariner, Master of the Sloop
Content of Boston in new England and declared against him for taking
on board the Said Sloop, Sundry and divor hides, Skins and furrs to
Export hence without paying the duties by Law assest on the said com-
modities etc.” There also appears to have been considerable difficulty
in the matter of collecting duties on "Liquors in South Potomac.” Lee
asks for and receives a commission empowering him to receive the rates,
duties, etc., on such commodities.

On July 26, 1726, a record on page 125 shows he was called upon to
produce this commission in court. On June 1, 1727, he is made one
of the trustees and guardians of the orphans of William Fitzhugh.
William Fitzhugh of Eagle’s Nest was the first husband of Lee’s only
sister, Ann. Another expression of trust in him comes when George
Randall, merchant of Great Britain, declares: "I the said George Randall,
Senr Have constituted in my stead & in my place my trusty & well
beloved friend Thomas Lee of the place commonly called Potomac in
Virginia, Esq. to be my true & Lawfull Attorney for me &c.”

Other records showing quite a different attitude to Lee also appear
when "three Sailors, John Fletcher, Ambrose Forward and Isaac Chap-
man, belonging to the Ship Elizabeth of London are brought to the
bar and several depositions being read against them of vile and Illegal
behavior and threating Colo. Thos. Lee whereupon the Court do order
the said John, Ambrose and Isaac to be taken into Custody and com-
mitted to Goal until further proceedings which is to be had concerning
the said facts.” This was on February 26, 1728. On March 4 these three
sailors with two others from the same ship are bound over "to keep the
peace for threating the life of Colo. Thos. Lee.”

Lee, evidently unconcerned, goes calmly on his way as "Gentleman
Justice.” His second term at the General Assembly in Williamsburg

42 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

approaches and on October 30, 1728, is recorded: "To Colo. Thos. Lee
for 46 Days attendance on ye General Assembly as burgess for this
County, Going, returning and ferriage etc. 6,772 lbs. Tob[acco].”

The legal process through which it was necessary for the freeholder
to order his slightest move where the public was in any way concerned
is shown in a record of March 28, 1729. The house later known as
Mt. Pleasant is being built by Thomas Lee on Matholic ground, prob-
ably for his London cousin, George Lee: "On motion of Colo. Thos.
Lee to be admitted to Turn the road Leading from the Crossroads at
ye white oak down to his plantation, he designing to build a Dwelling
house on the Top of the hill near where the road now passes. It is there-
fore directed by the Court that Robert Carter, Jun. Esq. and Jeremiah
Rust Gent, (when Desired by the said Lee) view and Inspect the place
proposed for Turning the said road and on their approbation of the
Same the said Colo. Thos. Lee to have Liberty to Alter the Road Ac-
cordingly and Clear a new way according to Law.” The following year
Lee is again at the Capitol in Williamsburg according to the record:
"To Colo. Thos. Lee for his Burgesses Sallery the time being 44 days
and 8 Days for going and Returning @130 pounds of Tob[acco]. a
Day with ferriges 130 In all, 6,970 lbs. Toba[cco].”

That his service as Burgess impressed others beside Lee’s constituents
and that he was personally popular in Williamsburg is evident from the
signal honor conferred upon him in 1732 when he was appointed to
the Council by his Majesty King George the Second. This position,
given by the Crown on recommendation of the Privy Council, was for
life. It was the highest in point of authority and prestige of any officer
in the colonial government, except that of governor and lieutenant gov-
ernor. Three qualifications were essential: education, wealth, proven
executive ability. A Councillor of State, as the office was termed,
exercised executive functions with the governor, as a member of its
second and highest legislative body. Thus Thomas Lee was not only a
judge in the highest colonial court, but also through his voice and vote
as a Councillor were the laws of Virginia made. Submitted to the Coun-
cil from the House of Burgesses, a measure became law, or not, as the
Councillors decreed. If passed by them, it went to the governor, as a
matter of form, for his signature. The law was then sent to England
by the Governor, also as a formality, to be examined and approved
by the Privy Council. As Beverley expressed it: "The Laws having duly
past the House of Burgesses, the Council, and the Governor’s Assent;

THE RECORD OF A YOUNG COLONIAL

they are transmitted to the King by the next Shipping, for his Approba-
tion, his Majesty having another negative Voice. But thev immediately
become Laws, and are in Force upon the Governor’s first passing them,
and so remain, if his Majesty don’t actually repeal them, although he be
not pleased to declare his Royal Assent, one way or other.

"There are no appointed times for their Convention; but thev are
call’d together, whenever the Exigencies of the Country make it neces-
sary, or his Majesty is pleas’d to order any thing to be proposed to
them.’’

For seventeen years, from 1732 to the day of his death in 1750, Thomas
Lee was to hold this position of Councillor of State and Judge of the
Supreme Court of Virginia, even after he became its governor. How
he used this added power and authority for the interests of the British
Empire in North America, is told in the record of those years — a record
of service that has never been fully revealed until the present day. It
establishes Thomas Lee of Stratford Hall as one of the great colonials.

Stratford Hall stands on a broad plateau protected on the river side by natural fortifications. Sketch by Morley j. Williams.

CHAPTER III: THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HOUSE

WHEN Thomas and Hannah Lee chose the site for their Great
House on the Clifts Plantation, they selected a spot far inland,
at least a mile or more back from the waterfront. In the early
1720’s many dangers beset the Potomac planter whose home was too
close to the river. He would always be apprehensive of Indian attack,
pirate raid, or injury to property or person from roaming bands of sail-
ors or convicts. The point selected for Stratford Hall was curiously
fortified by nature. To reach from the river the plateau on which the
house was to stand, it was necessary to climb the steep cliffs at the
water’s edge and traverse a tract of wild land, thickly wooded and
furrowed bv deep ravines. No fort could have been more secure from
river assault.

Doubtless there were other reasons that led Thomas and Hannah Lee
to build away from the river. Among the families living on the shore,
there was constant illness, caused, it was thought, by the river damp and
chill. Then too, there was another menace from the river, one far more
certain than Indian attack or pirate raid. For this went on imperceptibly,
night and day — the never-ending erosion of the shores. The great tidal
river, the cherished highway, the connecting link with civilization, was
at the same time a formidable enemy. With his intimate knowledge of
the Potomac coast line, Thomas Lee doubtless realized the destructive
effect of wave action upon the Stratford shores. In times of storm great
masses of earth and giant trees were sometimes swallowed by the river.
It may even have been that the original Pope "manner house” and its
"messuages” had been undermined by the waters or was being threat-
ened with ruin.

In any event Stratford Hall was built not on the cliffs but on this broad
plateau protected by natural fortifications on the north or river side. At
the foot of the plateau itself the deep, shadowed ravine was "streaming
with sweete Springs, like veynes in a naturall bodie.” Precisely when
this commanding site on the plateau was chosen and the first building
begun, is unknown. It must have followed closely after the survey of the
estate was made under Lee’s direction in 1721. Since this survey marks the
first step in the actual development of the Stratford property, the record
of March 29, 1721, is significant: "... and this Deponent [Humphrey
Pope] further saith that in the year 1721 as well as he can remember he
was present at a survey made by Mr. Thomas Newton, dec’d of the

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THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HOUSE

aforesaid Patent for the said Thomas Lee and this Deponent then shewed
the said Newton the stump of the aforesaid black walnut tree which had
been cut down some years before. ...”

The next available record is of the year 1725, when Thomas Lee agreed
to give an indentured servant his freedom in return for certain work in
Lee’s "quarter at the river-side.” While neither the Clifts nor Stratford
is mentioned, this record from the book of deeds and wills, 1658-1828,
of the Westmoreland court records, may prove to refer both to construc-
tion work at Stratford and to repairs of old outbuildings on the cliffs:

Agreement between Thomas Lee and William Bills, bricklayer his the sd.
Lee’s servant by Indenture: First the said William Bill in consideration of his
freedom from his said master does hereby discharge his sd. master from all
wages that is or may hereafter be due to him from the said master by his
Indenture or otherways whatsoever and obledges himself when required by the
said Lee his now master to come and finish one ceiling of a room in the said
Lee’s house workmanlike and what other bricklayer’s or plaisterers work there
is to doe to the said Lee’s house or out houses and repair two chimneys of brick
at the said Lee’s quarter at the river side. Westd- — At a Court held for the said
County the 24th day of Nov., 1725, Thomas (Wm.) Bill within named per-
sonally acknowledged the within agreement (in open Court) to be just and
what he had voluntarily consented and agreed to which was approved of by the
Court and at the instance of Thomas Lee, Esq. admitted to record and was
entered thereon the 7th day of Dec., 1725 — Thomas Sorrell, Clk.

Occupied though Thomas Lee was with the duties and responsibilities
of his several offices, the farming of his own plantations, and the cares
and interests of a growing family, it is evident from the existing build-
ing and from the traces of old vistas, of garden walls and terraces, that
he gave much concern to the design of the setting of his home as well as
to the construction of the buildings. It was an arduous task to supervise
the manufacture and assembling of materials. It appears to be certain
that bricks for Stratford’s mansion house and flanking outbuildings
were made locally from local clays; lime for the plaster burned from
Potomac oyster shells; stones for the mill foundations quarried near by;
lumber for carvings and structural timbers alike cut from Tidewater
trees. Stone work for the house, grinding stones for the grist mills, big
saws for the mills, many tools and utensils of iron or steel, glass and
hardware were imported from England. Then too, all had to be directed
bv a busy man at Matholic, nearly twenty miles away, or at Williams-
burg, four davs across the country. It is not surprising that the construc-
tion required from eight to ten years.

The plan for the Great House and the grounds was a grand concep-

THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HOUSE

tion — unusual for the period and unlike any other design in the Ameri-
can colonies. Suggestive of the imposing estate of Ashdown House, seat
of the Earl of Craven in Berks, England, the basic idea appears to have
been a mammoth cross making four long vistas: north, a mile toward
the Potomac; south, a mile or more toward the King’s Highway; east,
far over the enclosed gardens through the fields on the plateau, to the
deep forest; and west, to more virgin forest beyond the dark wooded
ravine skirted by the cliff road to the river.

During the early eighteenth century period in Virginia, according to
Mary Stanard, "the most common form of mansion, whether of brick or
wood, on a large plantation was the square building, two stories high
with or without an attic, and with a wide hall — often called the great
hall — four spacious rooms on each floor, and four chimneys. It was
sometimes flanked by wings and sometimes by detached out-buildings
used for office, school-house, laundry and kitchen. These, with stable,
carriage house and — a little farther away, wholly or in part hidden bv
trees — the negro quarters, consisting of log cabins set in rows or scat-
tered about, gave the place the appearance of a small village.’’

While bearing a certain resemblance to these typical plantation man-
sions, the plan of Stratford Hall was quite different from other Virginia
homes. The main house itself — a noble mansion — is an H -shaped struc-
ture of brick in which the cross-bar is formed by a great central hall —
mediaeval in suggestion and many times larger than the hall of the larg-
est contemporary house. This Great Hall, thirty by thirty feet in dimen-
sions, connects two massive wings, thirty feet wide by sixty feet deep,
in each of which are grouped four huge chimney stacks, forming high
towers. The plan of the entire group of buildings is a quadrangle di-
rectly in the center of what was once the vast cross of vistas. The main
house, consisting of a main story and attic above a high basement, is of
immense proportions, with brick walls two and one-half feet thick.

In each detail, large and small, the H -shape of the central mansion
is followed. Instead of being flanked by the usual two outbuildings, or
dependencies, in line formation, Stratford has four. Each of these de-
pendencies— the Kitchen, the Law Office, the Counting Office, and what
was probably the Schoolhouse — is in itself a considerable building, one
and a half stories in height, with great chimneys. Each stands about
twenty-eight feet from the nearest corner of the house and directly in
line with it. Other outbuildings, the Orangery, the Summer houses, the
Meat house, the Weaving sheds, the Servant and Slave quarters, were

Comparative plans, showing similarity of dimensions and foundation plan between Strat-
ford Hall and the Capitol at Williamsburg.

located near the mansion. The Springhouse Thomas Lee built at the
foot of the plateau where the Great House stood, in the very midst of
the "vale of crystal springs.”

The H-shape was common in Tudor England, and possibly Thomas
Lee had seen a number of such houses during his visit there in 1716.
There were several in the counties of Essex, Bucks, Hampshire, Shrop-
shire, Wiltshire, and Berks. Upton House (known in 1780 as Ham
House) was among them. Also designed in the H-form were numerous
public buildings in England, which Lee may have seen. In Stephen
Primatt’s Handbook of Architecture (a publication available to Thomas
Lee) it is illustrated as a house plan. Nearer at hand, one of the Ran-
dolph homes in Virginia, Tuckahoe is a frame structure of the H design.
But it would seem that there was no brick building of H-shape in the
Colony when Stratford was planned except the Capitol at Williamsburg.
The "fair brick capitol,” the public building Thomas Lee knew best,
was undoubtedly his model for the plan of the house. This is evident
not only from its H-shape but also from an exact similarity of dimen-
sions between the buildings.1 Stratford’s walls, like those of the Capitol,
are of fort-like thickness. The Queen Anne stiffness and prim formality
of the Capitol are relieved in Stratford by the architectural balance of
the four dependencies. Certain features of the Secretary’s house at Wil-
liamsburg seem also to be reproduced in Stratford brickwork, doorways,
and pediments.

From the Castle at Green Spring other architectural influences seem
to be derived. The great central hall of that old house, with windows
flanking the entrances, the first of its type in the colonies or even among

'According to measurements made by Thomas Tileston Waterman.
[50]

Landscape design for Stratford by Morley J. Williams.

52 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

English houses, marked the transition from the mediaeval form of hall.
This feature of the Castle was adapted to Stratford’s plan, together with
its type of flat-arched basement window and the high stoop of the main
entrance.

It is a curious and interesting circumstance that from the three build-
ings in Virginia known most intimately to Thomas and Hannah Lee
apparently came the principal architectural features of their stately
house. So within the fabric designed for their home were thus woven
patterns of the buildings which they must have loved.

The physical unity of Stratford’s architectural plan — mansion and out-
buildings, gardens and enclosing walls, roads of approach, and river
landings — was evidence and symbol too of its working unity, with mas-
ter, servants and slaves, work animals, fields, forests, and streams, quar-
ters, shops, and mansion house constituting an isolated social and eco-
nomic unit, self-operative, centripetal.

Like all colonials in Virginia, Thomas Lee cherished English ties and
associations, English names, traditions, manners, customs, even English
trees, plants, and fruits — all that was of England. Throughout his whole
life he loved and served the mother country. This feeling is so wrought
into Stratford that it takes possession of one’s every sense. For plain,
homely, robust as the house is, it has simplicity and dignity and the
rhythm of magnificent proportions.

From the circumstantial evidence available, Stratford Hall was prob-
ably started about 1721-22, and the house was ready for occupancy by
1729-30. The Lees probably moved there in the early fall of 1729, some
months after the burning of Matholic. In the court records already
quoted are references to threats of murder and arson made against
Thomas Lee, by persons whom he punished for their transgressions of
the law. During 1728 and 1729 another band of outlaws, including
some indentured servants, were committing depredations in Westmore-
land County. When complaint was brought to Lee, as justice of the
peace, he issued a warrant to apprehend the thieves and so aroused their
animosity.

Through the Lee servants, the outlaws learned that in a room at
Matholic, known as "the Cherry Tree Room,” were kept the Lee family
plate, jewelry, and other articles of value. These men broke into Matholic
on January 29, 1729, in the dead of night, found their way to the
Cherry Tree Room, rifled it, and set fire to the house.2 The interior wood-

2Through a discovery of original documents made by Mr. E. Carter Delano, deputy clerk of
the Circuit Court, Richmond County, the complete record is available of the trial and conviction
of the persons guilty of this crime.

Top: A section of the panelling in the Great Hall.

Bottom: Original hardware, brass locks, and H-hinges made in England.

54 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

work was old and dry, and almost instantly the house became a mass of
flames. Hannah Lee, pregnant at the time with her fourth child, escaped
death only by being thrown from her chamber window on the second
floor. The child, a son, was born a few weeks later, and died on the dav
of his birth.

The Maryland Gazette of February 4, 1729, reported the fire:

Last Wednesday night Col. Thomas Lee’s fine house in Virginia was burnt,
his office, barns and outhouses, his plate, cash to the sum of ten thousand lbs.
papers and everything entirely lost.

His lady and child were forced to be thrown out of a window and he himself
hardly escaped the flames, being much scorched. A white girl of about twelve
years old (a servant) perished in the fire.

It is said that Col. Lee’s loss is not less than £50,000.

In its March 4th issue the same paper had the following advertise-
ment:

Stolen out of the House of Col. THOMAS LEE, in Virginia, sometime before
it was burnt, a considerable quantity of valuable Plate, viz. Two Candle
[Caudle] Cups, three Pints each. One Chocolate-Pot, One Coffee-Pot, One
Tea-Pot. Three Castors, Four Salts, A Plate with the Cortius Arms. A Pint
Tumbler Ditto Arms. Four Candlesticks, One or two Pint cans. A funel for
Quart Bottles, no Arms on it. A Pair of Snuffers and Stand, etc.

This Plate has on it the Coat of Arms or Crest, belonging to the Name of Lee,
viz. TESS CHEQUE, between eight Billets, Four and Four. The Crest is a
Squirrel sitting upon and eating an Acorn off the Branch of a Tree proper.

N. B. The Governour of Virginia, has publish’d a Reward of 50 Pounds, and
a Pardon to any one of the Accomplices who will discover the rest (except the
Person who set Fire to the House.)

The date of the fire, January 29, 1729, is confirmed through a court
record, Thomas Lee’s deposition in reference to the will of William
Chanler on file in the Westmoreland Courthouse. This will, accord-
ing to Lee’s deposition, he had placed in his "scrutore” which, with
everything else in the house, was burned. Nothing remained of the
great old house of Matholic but scarred and blackened foundations.
Today, the site alone is left; and after two hundred years, it still retains
the name then given it, "Burnt House Fields.” The greater portion of
Richard Lee’s celebrated library also was destroyed. Certain of the Lee
family portraits escaped the flames. These may have been the family por-
traits referred to in an inventory of furnishings at Lee Hall, the estate
adjoining Matholic, occupied by Thomas Lee’s brother Henry and Mary
(Bland) Lee. Or they may have been removed to Stratford before Janu-
ary of 1729. According to a theory in the Lee family, various household
furnishings were taken to Stratford from time to time. The move, hav-

THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HOUSE

in g been long in contemplation, was probably a gradual process. This
might readily account for the survival of the family portraits and a few
of Richard Lee’s books.

For a few months after the fire Thomas and Hannah Lee undoubtedly
stayed with their relatives at Lee Hall. Hannah would have been in too
weak a condition to move. Furthermore, Thomas Lee was overseeing the
building of a house on Matholic lands for his nephew George. From this
time, Matholic was called by the name of the new house, Mount Pleas-
ant.3

That Thomas Lee had removed from this locality before 1730 is shown
by several records in the Order Book of Westmoreland County (1721-
31). On May 29, 1729, there is mention of an order for a "highway to
the white oake by Capt. Henry Lee’s.” Captain Henry Lee lived at Lee
Hall, the adjoining plantation to Colonel Thomas Lee and "right at the
cross roads.at ye white oake.” The change in the road order from Colonel
Thomas to Captain Henry would suggest that Colonel Thomas Lee bv
May 29, 1729, had vacated that immediate section.

While the fire was such a disaster to Lee and his family, it was not
wholly a loss. According to his kinsman, Richard Corbin, Lee petitioned
the governor and Council for assistance and received a favorable re-
sponse. Governor Gooch wrote to the Lords of Trade and Plantations
on March 26, 1729:

Nor, My Lords, are these all our Fears, the secret Robberies and other vil-
lanous attempte of a more pernicious Crew of Transported Felons — Mr.
Thomas Lee, which in the night time were sett on fire by these Villains and
in an instant burnt to the ground, a young White Woman burnt in her bed.
The Gentleman and his Wife and three children very providently getting out
of a Window, with nothing but their Shifts and Shirts on their backs, which
was all they saved, not two minutes before the house fell in, and this was done
by those Rogues because as a Justice of the Peace, upon complaint made to
him, he had granted a warrant for apprehending of some of them. They are
not yet discovered.

In consideration of this Gentleman’s misfortune, which he is not well able
to bear and as it arises from the discharge of his duty as a Magistrate, I have
been prevailed upon to intercede with your Lordships that his Case may be
recommended to his Majesty, for his Royal Bounty of two or three hundred
Pounds towards lessening his loss, which was the more considerable by a very
good Collection of Books.4

Abstracts from the series of letters that followed, while containing a
repetition of the events of the fire, are of historic interest:

“See Supplementary Records, IV : Records of Mount Pleasant.

JVa. B. T. Vol. 38, pp. 30-31. Also London ref. C. O. 5 vol. 1336 page 30.

An original lock , showing British trade-mark.

THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HOUSE

1729, June 4, Whitehall.

Lords of Trade to Lords of the Treasury-lnclose extract of letter from Lieut.
Gov. Gooch giving a account of a barbarous outrage by a crew of transported
felons on a gentleman of Virginia for having done his duty as a justice of the
peace — Think it proper as the case is very deplorable that it should be laid
before her Maj. for her consideration.

1729, March 26, Virginia.

Lieut. Gov. Gooch to Lords of Trade. — The secret robberies and other vil-
lanous attempts of a more pernicious Crew of transported felons yet more
intolerable — Describes how these villains in the night set fire to Mr. Thomas
Lee’s house which was burnt to the ground, a young white woman burnt in
her bed & Mr. Lee, his wife and three children only escaping out of the window
with nothing but their shirts on, not two minutes before the house fell in. — And
this because as a Justice of the Peace, Mr. Lee had granted a warrant for
apprehending some of them — recommends his case to his Maj. Bounty of 2 or
300 £ towards lessening his loss.5

1729, June 20, Whitehall.

Lords of Trade to Lieut Gov. Gooch — . . . Have enclosed extract of his
letter which relates to the houses of Mr. Lee having been burnt by some trans-
ported felons to the treasury and hope his Maj. will extend his bounty to a
person who has suffered for having discharged his duty — the Lt. Gov. will do
well to use his utmost endeavors to find out and prosecute the persons concerned
in this villianous action with the utmost severity of the law. . . .

1730, April 9th, Williamsburgh.

Lieut. Gov. Gooch to Lords of Trade — Has received Treasury Warrants for
£1,000 for defraying the expenses of running the (Boundary) Line — and for
£ his Majs- Bounty to Mr. Lee. . . .8

This bounty was ordered by Her Majesty, Queen Caroline, who was
acting as regent in 1729. According to family tradition, it was used to
complete Stratford.

By the close of 1729, the Lee family must have been comfortably
settled in their new home. On December 13, 1730, the birth of another
son, Thomas Ludwell Lee, is recorded. Stratford is not mentioned as
the place of his birth, but neither is Matholic named as the birthplace
of the four older children.

The year 1732 was an auspicious one for the family at Stratford,
marked as it was by the appointment of Thomas Lee to the Council. The
Stratford estate was increased at this time through Lee’s purchase of an
additional 2,400 acres including another long stretch of river frontage.

In this year too, on January 20, was born the fifth son, Richard Henry
Lee.

6Va. Manuscripts From Sainsbury 1720-1730 — Vol. 9. From British Record Office.
°Va. B. T. Vol. IS. R. 151 C. O. 1322 p. 277.

58 STRATFORD HALL : THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Barely three weeks after his birth (recorded by his grandson, Richard
Henry Lee, as having taken place at Stratford) , a similar event occurred
at Bridges’ Creek in the home of Lee’s friend and neighbor, when
"George Washington Son to Augustine & Mary his Wife was Born ye
11th Day of February 1731/2 about 10 in the Morning & was Baptiz’d
on the 3:th of April following. Mr. Beverley Whiting & Capt. Chris-
topher Brooks Godfathers and Mrs. Mildred Gregory Godmother.”
Throughout their lives these two, George Washington and Richard
Henry Lee, born on almost the same day and on neighboring planta-
tions, were to be united in their patriot services for the future republic.

Thomas Lee’s appointment to the Council in this same year also
meant more frequent visits and a closer association with Williamsburg
for his family. His younger daughter Alice was fond of describing to her
children and grandchildren the "splendour” in which her father lived
at Williamsburg, where they must have occupied the Castle at Green
Spring.7

Despite his heavy duties at Williamsburg, Thomas Lee spent much
more of his time at Stratford than might have been expected. The
papers and letters dated there make it evident that as much of his busi-
ness as possible was transacted from the home he loved in Westmore-
land. There he could supervise his plantation, plan and oversee the edu-
cation of his children, and enjoy the society of his neighbors. The closest
friendship existed always between the families of Stratford, Mount Airy,
Sabine Hall, Peckatone, and Nominy Hall.

The Stratford gardens were Lee’s special delight; and he seized every
chance to add to them, even in the midst of business. From an official
journey to Philadelphia, in 1744, he probably brought to Stratford the
beautiful Lombardy poplars and weeping willows which survived over
a hundred years. At one of the official dinners his host was Andrew
Hamilton, who had a famous country seat outside of Philadelphia.
Hamilton, like Lee, was an enthusiastic horticulturist and was especially
interested in the importation to the colonies of rare trees, shrubs, and
plants from England and many other parts of the old world. In his ex-
perimental nursery were the first and only poplars and willows known
at that period. Thus it was undoubtedly through Hamilton that Lee in-
troduced these trees to Virginia — and to Stratford.

’Mentioned by Nancy Shippen Livingston in a letter to her nephew William Shippen : Ship-
pen Papers : Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen.

View from one of the dining-room windows looking toward the river.

THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HOUSE

Numerous records point to Thomas Lee’s never-flagging interest in
botanical matters in general and the Stratford gardens in particular. He
writes his brother Henry about "the grafted trees I left in boxes in the
Garden. ...” Like all garden makers of the American colonies, he
coveted seeds, bulbs, shrubs, and trees from England and delighted in
exchanging for them his own Virginia products. His cousin, Lancelot
Lee of Coton, Shropshire, wrote him May 21, 1745: '"After all give me
leave to beg a small favor of you — the following trees are, I believe,
native of Virginia, which I have endeavored to procure seeds of, but
have hitherto been unsuccessful — the Virginia Cypress (it grows on
wet marshy land), the scarlet oak, and the paria, or scarlet flowering
horse chestnut. The cones of the Cypress should be sent entire; the
acorns and chestnuts will easily keep so short a voyage. Pardon this
trouble, which if I can return with anything this Island affords within
my power, you may fully command.”'

It may have been Lancelot who gave Thomas Lee the seeds for the
majestic English beeches at Stratford which were probably planted there
when the site for the Great House was determined. In the letter quoted,
Lancelot Lee apparently comments on his Virginia cousin’s description
of his orangery: "Your fruits and shades are indeed delightful. I have
tasted them in the eastern though not in the "western’ world.”

Thus to the robust English character of the early Stratford gardens,
their fine symmetry and spacious proportions, was added a certain East-
ern quality, a tropic richness borne out by the frequently recurring men-
tion of the orangeries, the figs, the pomegranates.

To the education of his sons Lee gave much attention. About this
time the three older boys, having had several years’ instruction at home
from tutors carefully selected by their father, were sent to England.
Philip Ludwell and Thomas Ludwell were to complete their law studies,
and Richard Henry was entered at a long established school in York-
shire.

From surviving letters and documents it is evident that Thomas Lee’s
sons and daughters had a great respect and admiration for their father.
They also loved him devotedly. Years later Alice Lee told her children
that there was in her father’s countenance a look unlike that of other
men, as of one whose spirit overflowed with the milk of human kind-
ness. He ""was wise and Philosophic,” she said; "His eve beamed hos-
pitality,” and his smile expressed its very essence.

s Magazine of the Society of the Lees of Virginia Vol. I, No 3, October, 1923, p. 98.

62 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

When Alice’s son, Thomas Lee Shippen, visited Stratford Hall forty
years after her father’s death, he wrote his parents: "... There is
something truly noble in my grandfather’s picture — He is dressed in a
large wig flowing over his shoulders (probably his official wig as Presi-
dent of the Council) and a loose gown of crimson sattin richly orna-
mented— I mention the dress as it may serve to convey to you some idea
of the stile of the picture. But it is his physiognomy that strikes you
with emotion — A blend of goodness & greatness — a sweet yet pene-
trating eye — a finely marked set of features, and a heavenly counte-
nance— Such I have almost never seen. Do not think me extravagant—
My feelings were certainly so when I dwelt with rapture on the pictures
of Stratford and felt so strong an inclination to kneel to that of my
grandfathe[r], It was with difficulty that my uncles who accompanied
me could persuade me to leave the Hall to look at the gardens vine-
yards orangeries & lawns which surround the House. . . .”9

In the year 1748 more changes came in the life at Stratford with the
first wedding in the family. Hannah, the elder daughter of the house,
was married to her kinsman, Gawen Corbin of Peckatone. No descrip-
tion of the wedding, nor any feature of it, is available; but it took place,
no doubt, in the Great Hall at Stratford.

In January, 1749, the year after her daughter’s marriage, Hannah
Ludwell Lee died. She had borne her husband eleven children. As
mistress of Stratford Hall, she had directed the large plantation house-
hold, the indentured servants and the slaves in their domestic work and
crafts. She had cared for them in sickness as she had cared for her
husband and children — "a most tender mother,’’ it is written of her.10
Her body was carried over the long road to Matholic, their first home,
where she had come as a bride from Green Spring twenty-eight years
before. She was laid to rest in the family burial ground, in Burnt House
Fields.

Thomas Lee had a deep and abiding love for Hannah Lee. His last
will and testament, drawn a few weeks after her death, says: "As to my
Body, I desire if it Pleases God that I dye anywhere in Virginia, if it be
Possible I desire that I may be buried between my Late Dearest Wife
and my honoured Mother and that the Bricks on the side next my wife,

8Autographed signed letter from Thomas Lee Shippen dated September 20, 1790: Shippen
Papers, Library of Congress.

10 77m Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Vol. XX, 1750. By Sylvanus Urban,
Gent., London. Printed by Edward Cave, at St. John’s Gate.

The first mistress of Stratford Hall: Hannah Ludwell Lee, ivife of Thomas Lee and
mother of the famous Lees : from the original portrait hy an unknown artist.

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

may be moved, and my Coffin Placed as near hers as is Possible, without
moving it or disturbing the remains of my Mother.”

Someone who knew and loved Hannah wrote this ode to her mem-
ory:11

Lo ! from yon solitary, sad recess,

Bending this way, in dismal pomp of dress,

Big with some fatal news, The Goddess of distress !

The bat and screech-owl on her shoulders stand.

And yew and cypress fill each wringing hand;

Streaming her eyes, dishevell’d all her hair,

And moving with her cries the melting air,

GRIEF’S self appears, who never visits day,

But when uncommon worth is snatch’d away.

T come, she cries, to wail Constantia dead!

Phoenix of woman, and the marriage bed!

When will again, such charms, and virtues meet!

Ah, when a mind and body so complete!

Thro’ wide America’s extended plains,

Lament with me, ye gentle nymphs and swains!

Her dear-felt loss, oh, aid me to deplore!

Ne’er will you see the sweet Constantia more:

Ne’er hear again the musick of her tongue,

Softer by far than Philomela’s song.

Who can refuse the tributary tear
To one so lov’d, so affable, sincere ?

Ah, what a mistress! how descending kind!

And to the needy what a pitying mind !

Ye husbands, and ye children come and mourn,

The fondest wife, and mother in her urn!

Ye kindred, friends, ye virtue-lovers, all,

Oh, let ye pearly drops in torrents fall!

Nor to my wretched grot will I return,

Till I have taught the hardest heart to mourn.”

11 The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Vol. XX, 1750. By Sylvanus Urban,
Gent., London. Printed by Edward Cave, at St. John’s Gate.

CHAPTER IV: COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

ASA MEMBER of His Majesty’s Council, Thomas Lee took an in-
creasingly active part in colonial affairs. With him originated the
JL JJL project of purchasing from the Iroquois their lands beyond the
Alleghenies. It was his suggestion that Virginia, Maryland, and Penn-
sylvania form a Commission to act jointly to protect their boundaries
and make the western lands safe for English settlement. The plan re-
ceived immediate cooperation from the governors of these respective
provinces who, during the summer of 1744, established the Commission
with representatives from each colony to treat with the chiefs of the
Six Nations at the little frontier town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This
was the second attempt made in the American colonies for joint action
against a common foe. The first, initiated during 1690, in the Province
of New York, had been to unite neighboring colonies to repel the long-
feared Canadian invasion. Over half a century later, Thomas Lee, see-
ing the common danger to Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania from
the menace of the French and Iroquois, therefore took measures for the
joint security of these colonies.

The Honorable William Gooch, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia,
appointed Colonel Lee, with William Beverley, to head the Colony’s
delegation attending the Council. The official document reads:

1744: Thos. Lee, Esq. and Wm. Beverley, Esq. appointed commissioners to
treat with the Six Nations:

Whereas of late some misunderstandings and Differences have arisen between
His Majestys’ Subjects of this Dominion and the Six United Nations of Indians,
and being induced by several Representations and Messages interchanged, to
believe that they are desirous to enter into Treaty with this Government &c &c

Know ye that I reposing special trust &c in the experience, Loyalty Integrity
and Abilities of Thomas Lee Esqr a member in Ordinary of His Majestys’ honble
Council of State, and one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Judication in
this Colony — and of Wm Beverley Esqr Col: and County Lieutenant of the
County of Orange and one of the Representatives of the People in the House of
Burgesses of this Colony and Dominion of Virginia &c . . . have &c nomi-
nated & constituted the said Thomas Lee and Wm Beverley Commissioners &c
to meet the Six Nations or Such Sachems &c as shall be deputed by them &c
... at Newtown in Lancaster C° Province of Pensylvania &c — 1
The Six Nations was the most formidable confederacy of Indians on
the continent. Not only did it menace Pennsylvania and Virginia; but

'Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Volume I. p. 238.

[65]

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68 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

unless its claims to lands in Maryland as well as the territory of the Ohio
basin could be disposed of by purchase, no settlement in these three
colonies was safe from massacre.

During the second week of May, 1744, Commissioner William Bev-
erley of Blandfield met Lee at Stratford. All of the "Gentlemen of
their Levies” came together there: Colonel John Tayloe, Jr., of Mount
Airy; Warner Lewis of Warner Hall, Gloucester; James Littlepage of
Fredericksburg; Robert Brooke of Brooke’s Bank on the Rappahannock;
and Presley Thornton of North Garden. Lee’s eldest son, Philip Lud-
well Lee, was also a member of the expedition. On the morning of
Thursday, May 17, the group left Stratford by boat for Annapolis, from
which point they proceeded to Pennsylvania.

At the joint request of the Virginia and Maryland commissioners,
Governor Thomas of Pennsylvania had called the Iroquois together
months before. The chiefs and other braves of the Six Nations came
from long distances with their squaws and children. They traveled in
leisurely fashion, pitching camp, hunting, and fishing as they journeyed.
It was late in June before the various groups reached Lancaster, and —
some 250 in number — put up their wigwams just outside the town.

The Council opened in the courthouse on June 22 and sessions were
held each day until the second week of July. Of all the Indian con-
ferences in colonial history, the Council at Lancaster was one of the
most interesting and colorful. From its opening session to the close,
Thomas Lee was the embassy’s central figure and as "Brother Assa-
ragoa,” its chief spokesman. Lee’s tone with the Indians was firm, his
speech direct, quite as though he were speaking to a group of English-
men. His long acquaintance with the Indians of the Potomac and Rap-
pahannock region and with their figurative form of speech, added, how-
ever, a new note to his expression that doubtless must have clarified for
his auditors the points at issue. The only speeches of Lee’s career that
have been preserved are those given at Lancaster, one of which, his
closing address, seems to have been a factor in determining the issues
at stake:

Sachims and Warriors of the united Six Nations.

We are now come to answer what you said to us Yesterday, since what we
said to you before on the Part of the Great King, our Father, has not been
satisfactory. You have gone into old Times, and so must we. It is true that the
Great King holds Virginia by Right of Conquest, and the Bounds of that Con-
quest to the Westward is the Great Sea.

If the Six Nations have made any Conquest over Indians that may at any

Honorable Thomas Lee, President of the Council and Commander in Chief of Virginia:
from the original portrait by an unknown artist.

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Time have lived on the West-side of the Great Mountains of Virginia, yet they
never possessed any Lands there that we have ever heard of. That Part was alto-
gether deserted, and free for any People to enter upon, as the People of
Virginia have done, by Order of the Great King, very justly, as well by an
ancient Right, as by its being freed from the Possession of any other, and from
any Claim even of you the Six Nations, our Brethren, until within these eight
Years. The first Treaty between the Great King, in Behalf of his Subjects of
Virginia, and you, that we can find, was made at Albany, by Colonel Henry
Coursey, Seventy Years since; this was a Treaty of Friendship, when the first
Covenant Chain was made, when we and you became Brethren.

The next Treaty was also at Albany, above Fifty-eight Years ago, by the
Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia; then you declare yourselves Subjects to
the Great King, our Father, and gave up to him all your Lands for his Protec-
tion. This you own in a Treaty made by the Governor of New York with you
at the same Place in the Year 1687, and you express yourselves in these Words,
"Brethren, you tell us the King of England is a very great King, and why should
not you join with us in a very just Cause, when the French join with our Enemies
in an unjust Cause? O Brethren, we see the Reason of this; for the French
would fain kill us all, and when that is done, they would carry all the Beaver
Trade to Canada, and the Great King of England would lose the Land likewise;
and therefore, O Great Sachim, beyond the Great Lakes, awake, and suffer not
those poor Indians, that have given themselves and their Lands under your
Protection, to be destroyed by the French without a Cause.”

The last Treaty we shall speak to you about is that made at Albany by Gov-
ernor Spotswood , which you have not recited as it is: For the white People,
your Brethren of Virginia, are, in no Article of that Treaty, prohibited to pass,
and settle to the Westward of the Great Mountains. It is the Indians, tributary
to Virginia, that are restrained, as you and your tributary Indians are from
passing to the Eastward of the same Mountains, or to the Southward of Cohon-
gorooton, and you agree to this Article in these Words: That the Great River of
Potoivmack, and the high Ridge of Mountains, which extend all along the
Frontiers of Virginia to the Westward of the present Settlements of that Colony,
shall be for ever the established Boundaries between the Indians subject to the
Dominions of Virginia, and the Indians belonging and depending on the Five
Nations; so that neither our Indians shall not, on any Pretence whatsoever, pass
to Northward or Westward of the said Boundaries, without having to produce
a Passport under the Hand and Seal of the Governor or Commander in Chief of
Virginia ; nor your Indians to pass to the Southward or Eastward of the said
Boundaries, without a Passport in like Manner from the Governor or Com-
mander in Chief of New-York.

And what Right can you have to Lands that you have no Right to walk upon,
but upon certain Conditions ? It is true, you have not observed this Part of the
Treaty, and your Brethren of Virginia have not insisted upon it with a due
Strictness, which has occasioned some Mischief.

This Treaty has been sent to the Governor of Virginia by Order of the Great
King, and is what we must rely on, and, being in Writing, is more certain than

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

your Memory. That is the Way the white People have of preserving Transac-
tions of every Kind, and transmitting them down to their Childrens Children
for ever, and all Disputes among them are settled by this faithful kind of Evi-
dence, and must be the Rule between the Great King and you. This Treaty
your Sachims and Warriors signed some Years after the same Governor Spots-
wood, in the Right of the Great King, had been, with some People of Virginia ,
in Possession of these very Lands, which you have set up your late Claim to.

The Commissioners for Indian Affairs at Albany gave the Account we men-
tioned to you Yesterday to the Governor of New-York, and he sent it to the
Governor of Virginia; their Names will be given you by the Interpreter.

Brethren.

This Dispute is not between Virginia and you; it is setting up your Right
against the Great King, under whose Grants the People you complain of are
settled. Nothing but a Command from the Great King can remove them; they
are too powerful to be removed by any Force of you, our Brethren; and the
Great King, as our common Father, will do equal Justice to all his Children;
wherefore we do believe they will be confirmed in their Possessions.

As to the Road you mention, we intended to prevent any Occasion for it,
by making a Peace between you and the Southern Indians, a few Years since,
at a considerable Expence to our Great King, which you confirmed at Albany.
It seems, by your being at War with the Catawbas, that it has not been long
kept between you.

However, if you desire a Road, we will agree to one on the Terms of the
Treaty you made with Colonel Spotswood, and your People, behaving them-
selves orderly like Friends and Brethren, shall be used in their Passage through
Virginia with the same Kindness as they are when they pass through the Lands
of your Brother Onas. This, we hope, will be agreed to by you our Brethren,
and we will abide by the Promise made to you Yesterday.

We may proceed to settle what we are to give you for any Right you may
have, or have had to all the Lands to the Southward and Westward of the
Lands of your Brother the Governor of Maryland, and of your Brother Onas ;
tho’ we are informed that the Southern Indians claim these very Lands that
you do.

We are desirous to live with you, our Brethren, according to the old Chain
of Friendship, to settle all these Matters fairly and honestly; and, as a Pledge
of our Sincerity, we give you this Belt of Wampum.

Shortly after this speech the treaty was signed by the Indian chiefs
and by the members of the Commission. Its provisions called for the
cession of all lands "that were and should be claimed by the Indians
within the province of Virginia’’ for the consideration of about $2,000.
Likewise, the lands they claimed in Maryland were confirmed to that
Colony, the Indians agreeing "not to come again east of the Allegheny
Mountains or South of the Potomac.” Thus England acquired and con-
firmed in one stroke its claim to the Ohio basin, and simultaneously
protected its northwestern colonial frontier in America.

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Facsimile of the instructions from Governor Gooch providing for the appointment of
the Virginia commission to negotiate the Treaty of Lancaster.

+U .

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

For some years after the making of the Lancaster Treaty the settle-
ment of the newly-acquired lands remained a problem to the Colony.
Virginia, like her sister provinces, Pennsylvania and Maryland, claimed
these "waste lands” to the west, and slowly her more adventurous
spirits made their way over the mountains. Grants had been given the
veterans of the wars with France, and pressure was being brought to
bear upon the Colony to protect their settlements. These difficulties
during 1744, together with dangers of Indian attacks and French ag-
gression, had in the first place led Lee to project the Treaty of Lancaster.
The purchase of lands from the Iroquois then seemed at once a solution
for Virginia’s own problems and the opening of a vast territory to
British settlement.

The purchase, however, was but the first stage of this project which
Lee had so long cherished. It was now obvious that the haphazard
colonization of the Ohio basin by private individuals could not con-
tinue. Many of these settlers were little better than squatters, ill-
equipped for the rigors of frontier life. An easy prey to Indian attack,
they were a constant source of anxiety for their own sake and because
they were invitation to raids nearer the heart of the Colony. According-
ly, Lee turned over in his mind ways and means of settling the territory
under the auspices of a land company. This was in line with the British
colonial policy of encouraging expansion by offering rich rewards to
speculators. There was money to be made in developing a new market,
but first the market had to be created by the planting of settlements
underwritten and protected by the company. In this way the Virginia
Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company had been not only specu-
lative ventures but also the instruments of British expansion as well.

Early in 1749, Indian troubles, largely instigated by the French, were
again imminent; and Lee saw that the time was ripe to press his plans
for such a company. He, therefore, interested a number of his Maryland
and Virginia friends in entering into association with a group of Lon-
don merchants to form the Ohio Companv. The original American
members were Thomas Nelson, Colonel William Thornton, William
Nimmo, Daniel Cresap, John Carlyle, George Fairfax, Jacob Giles, Na-
thaniel Chapman, and Joseph Woodrup.2. Lee was named president.

2Other members who joined several years later were Governor Dinwiddie. George Mason,
John Mercer and his three sons, George. James, and John Francis: Richard Lee of Lee Hall,
Thomas Ludwell Lee, Philip Ludwell Lee, John Tayloe, Gawen Corbin, Presley Thornton, Rev.

James Scott, and Lomax. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XII,

No. 1, July, 1904, p. 162-163.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OE VIRGINIA

The company’s petition to the Privy Council solicited a grant of 500,-
000 acres for "settling the countrys upon the Ohio and extending Brit-
ish trade beyond the mountains on the western confines of Virginia.’’
Two hundred thousand acres were to be selected immediately; the com-
pany was to pay no quitrents for ten years, but was to settle one hundred
families within a seven-year period. It was also to build a fort at its own
expense and maintain a garrison for defense against the Indians.

Negotiations dragged on for months. On March 16, 1759, the peti-
tion was granted by the Council. At length the Board of Trade ordered
the governor of Virginia to pass the grant, and the Ohio Land Company
was chartered July 12, 1749. The noted explorer, Christopher Gist, was
employed to examine and survey the lands. Arrangements were made
for the purchase of stocks of goods to the value of £4,000, and emigrants
from the Colony were soon on their way west.

During his long term as administrator of the Colony, Lieutenant Gov-
ernor Gooch had not shown great enthusiasm for Councillor Lee’s
project. Although he had appointed the commissioners, he had never
insisted upon authorization of their expenses; and payment finally de-
volved upon Lee and Beverley, chiefly upon the former. Gooch’s failing
health may have been partly responsible for his lack of interest. His
request for retirement on this account was granted in the summer of
1749, and he returned to his home in England.

The President of the Council, a native Virginian, John Robinson, suc-
ceeded Gooch as acting governor on August 14, and Thomas Lee, as
ranking councillor, took Robinson’s place as president. A few weeks
later Robinson died suddenly, and Lee, on September fifth, 1749, be-
came acting governor of Virginia. Henceforth he was officially referred
to in the State papers as "Thomas Lee, Esq., President of our Council
and Commander in Chief of our Colony and Dominion.”

At last in a position to push the development of the company’s plans
more vigorously, Lee had at once to deal with difficulties of a new
nature. This time it was not only the French who inspired the Indians
to attack the new settlers, but also Englishmen from other colonies, who
did not propose to see the Ohio Land Company take over lands which
they considered their own.

From Stratford, where he had planned and organized the company,
Lee wrote to his friend Hamilton, who had succeeded Thomas as Gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania:

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Stratford, 22d November 1749.
Sir,

I had the Pleasure to congratulate You on your arrival to your Government
by the Favour of my Friend Mr. Strettell; I had great satisfaction when I heard
of your being advanced to that Honourable Station, because I had a very great
Esteem for You ever since I had the Honour to know You.

Upon Sr. William Gooch’s leaving this Colony the Government here has
devolved upon me as eldest Councellor, and I hope the good Agreement that
will subsist between us will be of service to both Governments.

I am sorry that so soon I am obliged to complain to You of the insidious
behaviour, as I am informed, of some traders from your Province, tending to
disturb the Peace of this Colony and to alienate the Affections of the Indians
from Us.

His Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant to some Gentlemen and
Merchants of London and some of both sorts of this Colony, a large Quantity
of Land West of the Mountains, the design of this Grant and one condition
of it is to Erect and Garrison a Fort to protect our trade (from the French)
and that of the neighboring Colonies, and by fair open Trade to engage the
Indians in Affection to his Majestie’s Subjects to supply them with what they
want so that they will be under no necessity to apply to the French, and to
make a very strong Settlement on the Frontiers of this Colony, all which his
Majesty has approved and directed his Governor here to assist the said Company
in carrying their laudable design into Execution; but your Traders have pre-
vailed with the Indians on the Ohio to believe that the Fort is to be a bridle for
them, and that the roads which the Company are to make is to let in the
Catawbas upon them to destroy them, and the Indians naturally jealous are so
possessed with the truth of these insinuations that they threaten our Agents if
they survey or make those roads that they have given leave to make, and by this
the carrying the King’s Grant into execution is at present impracticable. Yet
these are the Lands purchased of the Six Nations by the Treaty of Lancaster.

I need not say any more to prevail with you to take the necessary means to put
a stop to these mischievous practices of those Traders. We are informed that
there is Measures designed by the Court of France that will be mischievous to
these Colonys which will in Prudence oblige Us to unite and not divide the
Interest of the King’s Subjects on the Continent. I am with Esteem & Respect,
&c.

A few weeks later Lee sent this additional statement to the Pennsyl-
vania governor:

Stratford, 20th December, 1749. Sir, Since the Letter I had the Pleasure to
write You I have found it necessary to write to the Lords of the Treasury desir-
ing their Lordships to obtain the King’s Order for running the dividing Line
betwixt this Colony and Yours, else many difficultys will arise upon the seating
the Large Grants to the Westward of the Mountains. In the case of the Earl
of Granville and Lord Fairfax this method was taken and Commissioners
appointed by his Majesty and those noble Lords. I thought it proper to acquaint

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

you with this Step that there might be no Surprize and that a matter of such
Consequence may meet with as little Delay as the Nature of it will admit. I am
with all possible Esteem, &c.

Officially the trouble was smoothed over, but inter-colonial jealousy
caused endless wrangles over boundaries and titles, long after the Ohio
Land Company had ceased to exist.

Lee did not live to see his company touch off the French and Indian
War of 1754. Stirred by the influx of new families into territories to
which she still laid claim, France sent Contrecoeur into the region to
discourage further settlement by terrorization. At the forks of the Ohio
the company’s fort to protect the settlers, being built by Virginia, was
abandoned and later completed by Contrecoeur, who named it Fort
Duquesne. With Braddock’s ill-fated expedition against it, the bloody
wars for the Ohio Company’s lands began, to end only in 1763 with
the recalling of settlers from the territory.

The Ohio Land Company caused more blood to flow than did the
great companies of Virginia and Massachusetts Bay. Nor did it work out
a system of government which served as a foundation for colonial ad-
ministration. But it did carry on the work begun at the Treaty of Lan
caster. It helped to make the Ohio basin English soil.

One of Thomas Lee’s greatest services to Virginia during his presi-
dency was his success in dealing with Indians closer at hand than the
Ohio Valley. Perhaps no man in Virginia was better prepared for such
a service. In the seventeen years since his appointment to the Council,
he had become thoroughly familiar with its Indian policy. Having been
in council with the Six Nations, he knew the chiefs well; and he also
had personal friendly relations with the southern Indians.

One of the memorable acts of his administration was to save from
extirpation an entire tribe of Indians friendly to British interests. The
Iroquois, incited by the French, were secretly conspiring to attack their
own kinspeople, the Catawbas, and wipe them out, to the last man. Lee
was not one to be surprised by this bloody design. From sources which
he did not reveal, he learned of the plot and warned the Catawbas in
time to save them. These facts are known from a letter Lee received
from the Board of Trade of Great Britain, written from Whitehall,
September 1, 1750. 3

“The original document is in the Virginia Miscellaneous Papers, in the Library of Congress
So far as is known it has never appeared in print in any form. It is one of the very few signifi-
cant papers extant which relates to Lee’s administration.

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Facsimile of first page of original letter, dated Whitehall [London'] September 1, 17 SO,
to Pi esident Lee from the Board of Trade and Plantations.

Y/ T/n X/yy '

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

Under signature of the Right Honorable George Dunk, Earl of
Halifax, First Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations, the Board
commends Lee for his action and at the same time makes an interesting
statement of British colonial policy in French and Indian relations:

We are sensible of how great Importance it is to preserve the Amity and
good Friendship of the Neighbouring Indians, particularly the Six Nations so
powerful in themselves, who have been so long considered as His Majesty’s
Subjects, and who possess so large a Tract of Country bordering upon His
Majesty's Settlements; We are therefore very much concerned to hear that
there was reason to apprehend that the Six Nations were engaged in a Design
to extirpate the Catawbas, a People so well affected to the British Interest; You
certainly did right in giving Intelligence to the Catawbas of this Design, but
We still must hope that the French have not been able to prevail with the
Six Nations to carry it into Execution.

Your Intentions of Claiming the Assistance of the Indians to confirm the
King’s Right to those Lands which were purchased at the Treaty of Lancaster
in 1744, at the Time when you are to make a Present to the Six Nations, & to
those Tribes of Indians seated on the River Ohio, is very prudent; and We do
not doubt but you will improve the same Opportunity by endeavouring to
cultivate a strict Harmony with the Six Nations, and dissuade them from
entering into the Measures of the French in prejudice of His Majesty’s Subjects
and of the Indians in Alliance with us.

We are persuaded that you will in pursuance of your Instructions take all due
Care to protect His Majesty’s Subjects under your Government in possession of
their just Rights, and to prevent any Encroachments whatever upon his Maj-
esty’s Territories.

In return for his services to the Catawbas, Lee undoubtedly planned
to claim their help in protecting His Majesty’s subjects in Virginia and
also in confirming His Majesty’s right to the lands secured to Britain bv
the Treaty of Lancaster.

While the Catawbas must have looked upon President Lee as their
friend and protector, he was acting more particularly as the protector of
Virginia, since the Indians were a constant menace to the colonies and
friendly relations with near-by tribes were a safeguard to colonial pros-
perity. In this respect, Lee was endeavoring to carry out the charge of
the Empire to "take all due care to protect his Majesty’s subjects.”

It was important, too, that the Virginia colonists should be protected
from Indian raids inspired by the French. Lee had his own sources of
information on the French and Indian situation and was constantly alert
for new developments. The Lords of Trade and Plantations understood
the importance of such an attitude:

We are glad to find the French have failed in their unjustifiable Attempts
to stir up the Indians on the Ohio, against His Majesty’s Subjects, and as they

80 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

are at this time so remarkably assiduous in their Endeavours to sow Discord
amongst the several Nations of Indians in Amity with Us, you will not fail when
you deliver His Majesty’s Presents to the Indians, to use all Means of Persuasion
whereby their Affection to the British Interest in general may be secured; the
Wavering confirmed; the Steady encouraged; all Differences amongst them-
selves reconciled, and perfect Harmony established; And above all, no En-
deavours must be wanting to prevent their entering into Measures with the
French; either thro’ the Fear of Resentment, or the Hopes of Gain.

At the time of the correspondence quoted, Lee was endeavoring to
promote peace between the southern Indians and the Iroquois, and
working for this end with Governor Clinton of New York. Clinton
wrote Lee on August 7, 1750:

Sir—

Your Letter of the 6th June and the 11th July, I received the 4th Instant: And
have lately a Letter from Governour Glen, advising the great danger there is
of the total destruction of the Cattawbas, as many Nations of Indians, far
Superior to them in Number, have for some time past carried on a War against
them and therefore desiring me to use my Endeavours with the Indians, over
whom I have any influence, to dissuade them from going to War with the
Creeks and Cattawbas. I have with the Advice of his Majesty’s Council taken
what steps herein, we thought could be of any Service, and now write to Mr.
Glen, inclosing a Copy of the Treaty of Peace made between the Southern
Indians and the five Nations, and urging the Necessity of the former sending
their Deputies to Albany, as the only means by which a peace can be established
between them.

The Cattawbas might, I believe, be induced to come to Albany, notwith-
standing their present Apprehensions; If they are told, that they may come
thro Virginia and Pensilvania the lower way, with the greatest safety to this
place, and from hence they will be under the protection of this Government,
and it will be out of the Power of our Indians to do them any hurt, if they might
otherwise have been disposed to revenge themselves: And we hope you will
use your utmost Interest with the Cattawbas and other Southern Indians, to in-
cline them to a meeting at Albany; which would be most effectual at the time
I meet the five Nations there: When this will happen I cannot at present
tell, but if the Southern Nations are willing to send their Deputies thither, I
shall give you notice So that they may arrive in proper Season.

I am very much

Sir

Your very humble Servant
G. Clinton

Lee did not approve of this proposal for a meeting in New York State.
Albany was in Iroquois country. It was far north and the long journey
there was too dangerous for the Catawbas. He planned instead to bring
the Six Nations to Fredericksburg and in Virginia smoke the pipe of

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

peace. That the Board of Trade approved of this idea is shown from
another paragraph in this same letter already quoted:

We are glad you have received His Majesty’s Presents for the Indians of the
Six Nations, & other Tribes upon the Ohio, if you succeed in your Design of
Bringing them to Fredericksburg in your Colony, and inviting the Catawbas to
meet them personally, to make a Peace there; all the Purposes which the Gov-
ernor of New York could propose by their meeting at Albany will be answered.

But plans for the Fredericksburg Council never materialized in Lee’s
lifetime.

The colonial governor had to be both statesman and general. His
military duties were specific and comprehensive. Empowered now as
Commander in Chief of the Colony "to exercise control over all the cap-
tains and soldiers” in territory administered by Virginia, Lee knew
the strategic places to station them. He had the power to build and
repair forts, batteries and fortifications, and provide them with ordnance.
Part of his duties were to attend the different musters, make tours of
inspection, and review the companies of rangers stationed at the heads
of the rivers.

On file in the Public Record Office, London, are President Lee’s re-
ports of the account of munitions and stores of war at Williamsburg in
both the magazine and the governor’s house, with an account of the
condition of the guns "in ye sevl. Forts of Virginia in July 1750.” Copies
of these original documents are at Williamsburg.

The erection by Lee of a battery and lighthouse near the Southern
Capes and of the prompt measures he took to repair damage done to
Fort George are shown by another excerpt from the official letter from
Whitehall:

We have transmitted to His Majesty’s Secretary of State such Part of your
Letter of the 12th of June as relates to the Damage done to Fort George, and
to Indian Affairs; but We have not received the Account of that Damage
referred to in the Letter, nor the Estimate of the Cost of repairing the Fort; if
the turning it into a Battery will answer the End (and that We must leave to
your Judgement) it will be right to save the Expence of a compleat Repair of
the Fort in its present Form.

The erecting a Battery and Light House at or near the Southern Capes, ap-
pears to Us, according to your account, to be equally advantageous to Naviga-
tion and to the Security of the Colony; and the Method you propose of defraying
the Charge by a Tonnage upon Shipping seems to be easy & reasonable.

One incident in Lee’s administration points to his concern for the
development and maintenance of religious freedom — "the Affair of
Mr. Davi[e]s, the Presbyterian.” The Whitehall letter refers to some

82 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

occurrence, now forgotten, when it was difficult to preserve freedom of
speech and at the same time prevent religious disputes. The practical
viewpoint of the British Lord of Trade as expressed in this letter is of
significance:

With regard to the Affair of Mr. Davi[e]s the Presbyterian; as Tolleration and
a free Exercise of Religion is so valuable a Branch of true Liberty, and so
essential to the enriching and improving of a Trading Nation, it should ever be
held sacred in His Majesty’s Colonies; We must therefore earnestly recommend
it to your Care, that nothing be done which can in the least affect their great
Point; At the same time you will do well to admonish Mr. Davi[e]s to make a
proper Use of that Indulgence which our Laws so wisely grant to those who
differ from the Established Church, and to be cautious not to afford any just
Cause of Complaint to the Clergy of the Church of England, or to the People
in General.

Lee also supervised the repairs and reconstruction of the gardens of
the Governor’s house at Williamsburg and the house itself, which had
been rendered uninhabitable by fire. During his brief term as governor,
so soon and so prematurely ended, he occupied the Castle at Green
Spring.

As "President of Virginia” or as "President and Commander in Chief
of the Colony of Virginia,” Thomas Lee controlled all judicial, civil,
and military appointments in the Colony during 1749-50, thus having,
as William G. Stanard observes, in every sense the full power of gov-
ernor. From Westmoreland County Records are the following items:

Court-orders, 1747-50, p. 127, June 27, 1749.

A Commission from the Honourable Sir William Gooch, Baronet to James
Steptoe, Gent, to be Sheriff of this County &c. Sd. James having taken the
oaths &c. was Sworn &c.

P. 128.

Wm. Monroe, Gent presented a Commission from Honhle Sir Wm. Gooch,
Baronet appointing him Capt. of Foot Soldiers.

P. 203, June 7, 1750.

Fleet Cox, Gent. Presented a Commission from The Honble Thomas Lee, Esq.
President appointing him the said Fleet Cox One of the Inspectors of Tobacco
at Yeocomico & Rusts Warehouses in this county, who being Sworn according
to Law is hereby ordered to Enter in the Execution of the said Office.

Court-orders, 1750-52, p. 4, Aug. 28, 1750.

Benjamin Weeks, Gent, presented a Commission from the President of
Virginia appointing him Capt. of a Company of foot Soldiers in the County
and in Pursuance thereof took the Oath to the Crown and Subscribed the Test.

In addition to the giving of such appointments Thomas Lee had the
full authority to make land grants, a power vested only in the governor.
That he lsed this power wisely is shown by his interest in the develop-

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

ment of the country "to the westward’’ in Virginia and his activity in
opening opportunities for settlement by responsible and representative
families who would build up this part of Virginia. In the Land Office
at Richmond there are 364 pages of grants alone under the signature of
Thomas Lee. The usual form of such grants is shown in the following
two, quoted with the form of witness signature to the letters patent, as
found in Book 29:

December 15, 1749
400 Acres to Matthew — [p. 1]

400 A. to Jos. Adcock [p. 2]

291 A. to Nicholas [p. 3]

November 3, 1750

200 Acres to Nathaniel Davis [p. 325]

180 A. to Benj. Bennett [p. 364],

In Witness whereof we have caused these our Letters Patent to be made —
Witness our trusty and well beloved Thomas Lee, Esq. President of our
Council and Commander-in-Chief of our Colony and Dominion at Williams-
burg, under the Seal of our said Colony the third Day of November 1750

Thomas Lee President.

The records, cited in this chapter, probably represent but a fraction of
the work Thomas Lee accomplished in the fourteen months of his ad-
ministration; for his tasks— military, judicial, diplomatic, and civil —
were a burden for any one man.

When illness first overcame him in June, 1750, he was forced to leave
Williamsburg for a brief rest. Virginia’s dependence on him is clearly
shown in the fragment of a letter (unaddressed and undated) in the
papers of William Dawson in the Library of Congress:

The Preside has been ever since at the back Springs — and as the old Laws
expired and the new Body took place on the 11th of June during his absence,
we have been a country without Justices since that time for want of commis-
sions being signed for the several Counties. He is now on his return at Urbanna.

Back again in Williamsburg, Thomas Lee did not spare himself.
His signature on civil documents, land grants, and other official papers,
appears on these records until within a few days of his death at Strat-
ford on the fourteenth of November, 1750. His directions for his
funeral services were included in the will:

Having observed much indecent mirth at Funerals, I desire that Last Piece
of Human Vanity be Omitted and that attended only by some of those friends
and Relations that are near, my Body may be silently intered with only the
Church Ceremony and that a Funeral sermon for Instruction to the living be
Preached at the Parish Church near Stratford on any other Day.

The careful instructions for his burial, also left in his will, were carried

The long-lost inscription on the monument to Thomas Lee at Pope's Creek Church, writ-
ten by Richard Henry Lee. Preserved in a memorandum book by Thomas Lee Ship pen.

The glare of Thomas and Hannah Ludwell Lee in Burnt House Fields.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF VIRGINIA

out to the letter: his coffin was placed between that of his wife and his
mother. The bricks on the side next to Hannah Lee’s grave were moved
and her husband’s body placed close beside hers as he had directed.4

Engraved upon their tomb are these lines:

Here lies Buried the Hon’ble Col. Thomas Lee, Who dyed 14 November,
1750; Aged 60 years; and his beloved wife, Mrs. Hannah Lee. She departed
this life 25 January, 1749-50. Their monument is erected in the lower church
of Washington Parish, in this County; five miles above their Country seat, Strat-
ford Hall.

In the churchyard of this "lower church of Washington Parish,’’
Pope’s Creek Church, parish church of the Stratford Lees and the
Washingtons, Thomas Lee’s eldest son Philip raised a monument to his
parents "of parti-coloured marble’’ and the inscription was written by
their fifth son, Richard Henry Lee:5

This monument was erected to ye memory of the honorable Col.0 Thomas
Lee Commander in chief and President of his Majesty’ s Council for this Colony
— descended from the very antient and honorable family of Lee in Shropshire
who died Nov. 4th 1 750 aged 60 years.

Sacred to lee this reverential pile
Reader lament superior worth a while
Late what he was these faithful lines declare
An upright governor — - example rare
Public or private in each station just
Ambitious only to discharge his trust
Virtue of all his views the means and end
To Country & to Court alike a friend
This nice but happy secret still he knew
To be the ruler & the patriot too —

Nor less distinguished for the social trust

Of all that can adorn a man possess’d

To native parts he added ye acquir’d

And was himself the scholar he admir’d

Call’d to no bar nor bred to plead a cause

Y et as a Hardwick learned in the Laws

Warm in his friendship as he was sincere

A father & a husband truly dear

Heaven’s favorite virtue daily he desplay’ d

And thousands felt this charitable aid

If we look back to Alan’s primeval Earth

Could Paradise be fraught with more celestial worth.

Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus tarn cari capitis.0

JThis was ascertained in quite recent years when the new wall was built around Burnt House
Fields and repairs made there by the Society of the Lees of Virginia.

‘Original unpublished document recorded by Thomas Lee Shippen, discovered by the writer
and loaned by Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen.

6What limit can there be to our regret at the loss of so dear a friend.

CHAPTER V: THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

PRESIDENT LEE’S death in the prime of life and at the peak of
his service for Virginia, was widely mourned. William Nelson of
York wrote the family November 17, 1750: "I am verv sensible of
the general loss We have sustained in the Death of our truly good
President; on which melancholy occasion I heartily condole with You.”
Thomas Lee of Stratford Hall was a man for whom other men seemed
to have an exceptional liking and admiration. Many personal testi-
monies, references, and items in wills, documents, and letters prove
this circumstance. When Lee’s brother-in-law William Fitzhugh of
Eagle’s Nest died, he appointed Lee the guardian of his children. When
Henry Lee made his will July 30, 1746, he appointed his brother
Thomas guardian of his son Henry and his daughter Lettice. He said
further, ' It is my desire that my Wife and three Sons do in the man-
agement of their Estate take advice of my two Brothers The Hon’ble
Thomas Lee Esq. and Col°. William Beverley.” When one of Lee’s
friends and neighbors, William Chanler, was in a dilemma about the
confidential making and depositing of his will — "not that he was afraid
of his wife but did not want to live uneasy with her,” — he sought the
counsel of Thomas Lee.

Even the irascible and eccentric John Custis of Arlington, on the
Eastern Shore, was devoted to Thomas Lee and gave him a ring in testi-
mony of his friendship. Colonel John Tayloe of Mount Airy had a
warm affection for his friend and neighbor of the Northern Neck and
in his will left Lee a mourning ring, a mourning suit, and two hundred
and fifty pounds. Both Colonel Grymes and Colonel Lightfoot also
bequeathed mourning rings to Thomas Lee. His friend Colonel Thomp-
son left him his gun and his riding horse.

Five of President Lee’s sons were to honor his memory throughout
their lives by acts of public service unsurpassed in the histories of Ameri-
can families. In them were to be exemplified the constructive influences
of their father’s character and life.

As the eldest of the family and heir-at-law of his father’s estate,
Philip Ludwell Lee was now master of Stratford and was charged with
the care and education of his younger brothers and his little sister.
Thomas was also an executor of their father’s will, and with Philip, was
appointed guardian of the younger children. He was only in his twen-
tieth year and Philip was twenty-four. Living elsewhere were the other

[88]

THE SECOND MASTER OE STRATEORD

two executors and guardians, their kinsmen, Richard and Gawen Cor-
bin. Philip appears to have had matters in his own hands.

Thomas Lee left to each one of his six sons and two daughters specific
legacies in land, negroes, stock, money, or personal belongings. His
large estate included lands in six counties: Westmoreland, Northumber-
land, Stafford, Prince William, Fairfax, and Loudoun. To Philip, as the
eldest son, came the major portion of the estate, Stratford Hall with
its messuages and appurtenances and its more than six thousand acres:
"I give and devise to my Eldest son all my Lands in the County of
Westmoreland and Northumberland,” ran the lines of Thomas Lee’s
will, "to my Eldest son and the heirs male and his body Lawfully be-
gotten forever. . . .

"Item. I give and bequeath to my Eldest son and his heirs forever all
my Lands on the Eastern Shoare of Maryland and called Rehoboth, my
two Islands, Moreton and Eden in Cohongaronto or Potomack, 3,600
on the broad run of Potomac and to include half the good land on
Cohongaronto or Potomac, which is mv first Patent, Survey by Thomas
Stooper Surveyor and all my Land at or near the falls of the Potomac in
three Patents or deeds Containing in the three Patents above 3,000 acres,
all these Lands, I give my Eldest son in fee simple and I give my said son
all the Utensils on the said Lands. . . .

"Item. I give to my Eldest son one hundred Negroes about ten vears
old, and all of and under that age on the Lands I have given him but what
above a 100 yt are above ten vrs old to be divided as hereafter is men-
tioned, and in this Gift to make up the numbers, I give all my Trades-
men. all which Negroes young and old I annex to the Land given my
Eldest son to pass and Descend with the said Lands as the Law Com-
monly Called the Explanatory Law directs.”

His wishes in regard to the manner and method of the settlement of
his estate were definitely expressed:

"Item. My Will is and I accordingly desire yt my whole Estate be
kept together till all my debts and Legacies be settled and Paid. Item. I
will and Devise yt if any of my younger children dye before twenty one yt
in such case that Legacy be p'd in equal parts to such other as live to be
twenty one, that is my two daughters and my youngest sons. Item. I
give to my Second Son mv Gold watch and seal. Item. I Give all the
Rest and Residue of my Estate to my Eldest son and his heirs forever,
and the several Bequests and Legacies heretofore given I give in lieu and
full satisfaction of their Filial portions and so I desire it mav be taken

Northeast dependency of the Great House, probably the Stratford School.

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

and understood, and I hope I have Expressed so plainly that a Lawyer
will not find room to make Constructions prejudicial to mv Family.”
At the time their father died, Philip Ludwell, Thomas Ludwell, and
Richard Henry were still in England. Philip was studying law at the
Inner Temple in London; Thomas Ludwell’s school or chambers are not
recorded; Richard Henry was completing his final year at Wakefield
Academy in Yorkshire. The two older boys appear to have returned at
once to Virginia, but Richard Henry remained to complete his course at
the grammar school and to make the European tour, evidently pre-
arranged.

Early in the new year of 1751 it would appear that six of the Lee
children were at Stratford: Philip Ludwell and Thomas Ludwell;
Francis Lightfoot, aged sixteen; Alice, about fourteen; William, in his
twelfth year; and Arthur, the youngest, ten years old.

Of the eleven children born to Thomas and Hannah Lee, three had
died: Richard, their first born, Lucy, and John. Their names and birth
dates are all that is known of them. Hannah was the only member of
the Stratford family who in the late 1740’s was married. The wife of
Gawen Corbin, she was now mistress of Peckatone Plantation, distant
some twenty miles from Stratford — a long way at that time.

When it came to the kind of education his children should have,
Thomas Lee had practical ideas. "I desire and impower my Ex’ors
who I appoint Guardians to my children,” he wrote, "to educate my
children in such manner as they think fitt Religiously and virtuously and
if necessary to bind them to any profession or Trade, soe that they mav
Learn to get their Living honestly.”

One of the dependencies of the Great House was no doubt used as
the Stratford School and the lodging of the tutors. It was probably the
northeast building. According to the local historian of the Northern
Neck (in the eighteen-eighties), Rev. George Washington Beale:

Much of the educational training of the sons and daughters of Stratford was
derived from private tutors, engaged in Scotland, who, here gained their early
impression of the New World. How much the intellectural force and acumen
exhibited by the founders of the Republic was indebted to teachers of this
class, it would not be easy to determine. Two of these employed at Stratford
were the Rev. David Currie, afterwards, for more than fifty years, rector in
Lancaster; and the Rev. William Douglass, who also numbered among his
pupils James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson. Several of Mr. (Thomas) Lee’s
sons, who subsequently became eminent, were sent to England or Scotland for
the completion of their education.

92 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

From this statement it would appear that the three older boys were
prepared for their English schools by Dr. Currie and Dr. Douglass.
The Rev. Mr. Craig was the tutor at Stratford in later years, probably
during the decade from 1746 to 1756, when he instructed Francis Light-
foot Lee, Alice, William, and, for a brief space, little Arthur. Under
the regime of Philip Ludwell the Stratford School continued in session.

In speaking of Arthur, the youngest of the family, his biographer, R.
H. Lee (his great nephew) says: "according to the customs of that day,
in regard to the younger sons, [he] was left, until an advanced period
of boyhood, with the children of his father’s slaves; to partake of their
fare, and to participate in their hardy sports and toils. Hence his body
was early inured to hardship and his mind accustomed to unrestrained
exercise and bold adventure.”

The child was only eight years old when his gentle mother died. Ac-
cording to surviving letters Arthur and William were treated with sever-
ity by their elder brother Philip. William, especially, wrote him bitterly:
"certainly to be twelve years out of my pittance which my father left me,
without even common interest for it, while you have been indulging in
affluence and I, procuring my bread with the sweat of my brow, is surely
bad enough and it is time to put an end to it.” The restrictions appar-
ently imposed by Philip on the family may have had a part in helping to
fan the spirit of personal independence in his five brothers.

At Stratford, as in many planters’ homes, it was the custom for several
children of relatives or friends to come for visits of many months or
even several years’ duration and attend school with the children of the
family. In 1753 William James Lewis was among the visitors attending
school at Stratford with Francis Lightfoot, Alice and William Lee.
A court record of February 28th of this year shows that the personal
property of Billy Lewis was stolen by one James Gall who was "Com-
mitted to the Goal of the County aforesd for breaking and Entering the
house of Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. and Stealing from thence goods and
Money to the Value of Six pounds at Least, the Property of William
James Lewis.”

Life at Stratford finally became happier because the children appealed
to the Court for a new guardian — their cousin, Henry Lee, the son of
their father’s favorite brother. With his appointment and Richard
Henry’s return the difficulties with Philip must have been greatly
modified.

Arthur was sent to school at Eton, England, between 1751 and 1752.

Captain Henry Lee of Lee Hall and Leesylvaiiia, father of Light-Horse Harry Lee and
guardian of the Stratford children: from an original portrait by an unknown artist.

94 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Richard Henry Lee returned to Stratford in 1752. Considerate and
interested in his younger brothers, he did much to endear himself to
them and to influence them in their future careers.

His grandson R. H. Lee, in his Memoir of Richard Henry Lee says of
his education:

At this early period of the colony, there were few seminaries of learning in
which the higher branches of education were taught. The youths, whose parents
were able to bear the expense, were always sent "home” (as it was then ex-
pressed) to England, to complete their studies. Accordingly, Richard H. Lee,
after having received a grammatical education in his father’s house, under the
care of a private teacher, was sent to England, and placed at the academy of
Wakefield, in Yorkshire.

Anecdotes of the juvenile years of those, who afterwards become conspicuous
on the theatre of the world, when indicative of character, are both pleasing and
instructive. It is related of Mr. Lee, that when a boy, knowing he was to be
sent to England, it was his custom to make a stout negro boy fight with him
every day. To his angry father’s question, "what pleasure can you find in such
rough sport,” the son replied, "I shall shortly have to box with the English
boys, and I do not wish to be beaten by them.”

At the academy of Wakefield, by the aid of skilful teachers, and by his own
attention and capacity, he made rapid progress in the academical course of study,
particularly the Latin and Greek languages: his admiration of the nervous
energy of the one, and the grace and melody of the other, exhibited, at an early
age, maturity and correctness of taste.

Richard Henry faced other complications outside of Stratford’s four
walls — far more grave, indeed. The effort begun by his father at Lan-
caster to have Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania make common
cause of common dangers, was only in its inception when the Com-
mander in Chief died. In the several years after his death the compli-
cations of the French and Indian situation increased; and war was im-
pending. In a desperate effort to fend off disaster, Governor Dinwiddie
sent his protest to the French at Fort Le Boeuf. The messenger he ap-
pointed to carry that protest was a Westmoreland County lad — George
Washington. Young Washington of Bridges’ Creek — the next planta-
tion but one to Stratford — was among the earliest friends and play-
mates of the Stratford Lees. The man who was to be Washington’s
chief guide and helper in that long trek through the wilderness was
Christopher Gist, whom Thomas Lee had appointed as the first path-
finder of the wild Allegheny country.

Soon the storm would break. The friendship of the Iroquois, won for

THE SECOND MASTER OE STRATFORD

the colonies by Thomas Lee at Lancaster, was to prove one of the bul-
warks of England’s protection in the French and Indian War.

Richard Henry offered himself and his company of Virginians to
General Braddock to help fight the French. Braddock turned them
down as "provincials.” So the life at Stratford during the years between
1750 and 1760, though set against the background of the French and
Indian war and its aftermath, had no immediate part in it. The Lee
boys, no doubt, followed eagerly all news of the brave campaign of
their friend, Washington, but were not to be participants with him in
the struggle.

Richard Henry Lee spent these stormy years quietly at Stratford.
From his father’s library he secured what was, for him, the equivalent
of the university course which might have supplemented his grammar
school work at Wakefield Academy had his father lived. To again quote
his biographer, R. H. Lee:

Although he [Richard Henry] at this period passed a life of ease and pleas-
ure, it was not one of idleness; active and energetic, he was always in search of
knowledge — and the very extensive library which his father had collected, fur-
nished him ample means of gratifying his desire for intellectual improvement.
From the works of the immortal Locke, he acquired an ardent fondness for the
principles of free government; and from those of Cudworth, Hooker, Grotius,
and other writers of the same class, he drew maxims of civil and political
morality. He read with deep attention and admiration, the histories of the
patriotic and republican ages of Greece and Rome, which animated his love of
his country, and of liberty. The anarchy which too often disgraced their gov-
ernments, taught him the value of well defined constitutions, to guard indi-
viduals from the consequences of the prejudices of the many, and the public
prosperity from the effects of popular passion and caprice.

His taste was refined by reading the works of the classic poets, both ancient
and modern. Homer, Virgil, Milton, and Shakespeare, were his favorite authors
— of the last he was enthusiastically fond. The best histories of every age were
within his reach; and the vast fund of political wisdom derived from them was
strikingly exhibited, when, in future life, he called for its use in the service of
his country.

Mr. Lee, without any view to the practice, made himself well acquainted with
the principles of the civil law, and the laws of his own country. He applied his
mind with particular care, to the study of the history, and the constitution, of
England and her colonies. The popular features of these governments attracted
his admiration. He was delighted with the free spirit of the nation from which
he was descended.

The author has in his possession, the manuscript digests and synopses of the
works read by Mr. Lee, during his residence with his brother; they discover the
habits and mode of his study; their arrangement is new and always judicious;

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

the subjects are well illustrated, and the views of the authors, when given, are
concisely expressed, and happily condensed. To this early mode of study, he
was, no doubt, indebted for that conciseness of style, of which he afterwards was
as much a master, as he was of brilliant and impressive amplification.

From this it can be seen that Richard Henry gave much time to care-
ful, systematic study: self-instruction which proved later to be prepara-
tion for the career which was to mean so much to the making of the new
republic.

Three of the famous group of the five patriot brothers, Thomas Lud-
well, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot, studied law at Stratford.
Before 1760 they were Gentlemen Justices in Westmoreland as their
father had been. Step by step, from the smallest county office to state
and thence to national affairs, they were to move just as their father had
done. Every generation of Lees in Virginia had carried on the tradition
of service to King and Colony. Thomas Lee’s sons at Stratford had the
record of this service to consider. Undoubtedly they took pride in it and
realized their own responsibility to uphold it.

In England, for a brief period, Philip had studied law at the Inner
Temple in London. He was never the student his brothers were.1 In
Virginia he began his legal career as justice of the peace in Westmore-
land County.

He had been initiated by his father into at least one phase of the
Colony’s affairs when he went in 1744 with the embassy to negotiate
the Treaty of Lancaster. So high was the esteem in which his father
was held that honors, dignities, and high county and state appointments
came to Philip, as his father’s eldest son and the representative of the
family at Stratford. Philip was only twenty-four years old when Gov-
ernor Dinwiddie appointed him Leftenant and Commander in Chief of
Westmoreland County, November 27, 1752. Four years later Philip was
Presiding Justice, and also Burgess for Westmoreland. Eventually he
succeeded his father as a member of His Majesty’s Council.

During the late 1750’s Philip and his brother Francis explored the
lands in the upper country of Virginia which were left them by their
father. When Loudoun County was formed from Fairfax in 1757 it
included many acres belonging to Thomas Lee’s sons. The county seat,
Leesburg, established in 1758, was named for the Stratford Lees, and
both Philip and Francis were among the trustees appointed for the

’The very copy of the “Lord Coke’s Institutes” as he termed them, with which he labored
is today in the possession of The Robert E. Lee Foundation, with his boyish comment on “My
great and noble Lord Coke.”

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

town. Several years later Francis was to live there for a long period
and to represent the county as Burgess.

Philip was always far more interested in breeding thoroughbreds, in
farming the Stratford Plantation, and in building up the Stratford mills
and waterfront than ever he was in the classics, law, or politics. Not even
in his father’s time had there been such large shipments of tobacco, so
much mill and carpenter work done. The very exigencies of the situation
may have caused Philip’s severity to his brothers and the servants. Items
in the court records give an accounting of petitions for justice presented
bv various indentured servants of Philip Lee’s from time to time. The
following record of July 31, 1754 is one of several:

Richard Mynatt presented his petition to this Court vs. Philip Ludwell Lee,
Esq. Setting forth that he had served out the time for which he was indented
and that the sd. Lee refused to give him a discharge, the sd. Lee appeared and
the matter fully debated and upon mature consideration thereon had by the
Court they adjudged him free and Ordered that the Clerk give him a certificate.

At this period of Philip Lee’s career his picture is drawn by a certain
itinerant British tradesman, one George Fisher by name. In the spring of
1750, Fisher left London and came to Virginia to start business in
Williamsburg. From Henry Wetherburn, the keeper of the Raleigh
Tavern, he leased a large house near the Capitol, known as "The English
Coffee House,” where he purposed to deal in "Coffee, Tea, Chocolate,
Arrack, Claret, Madeira and other Wines, English Beer, French Brandv,
Rum, and several other articles, both from Europe, New York, Phila-
delphia, and the West Indies, proposing too as mv house was large and
in front particularly, to divide and let it out into several distinct Tene-
ments.”

From "The Narrative of George Fisher,” published in William and
Alary Quarterly, Series I, XVII, the following characterization and de-
scription of Philip Ludwell Lee are given:

I entered on my House the 29th September 1751; and I made this alteration
about the Christmas following, vizt. four months after. I had not entered upon
executing this last Resolution above a Fortnight or Three weeks before a strange
Mortal stalked into my house, in the garb or habit of one of our Common
Soldiers (a thing then rarely to be met with, tho’ extremely it seems affected by
this singular Person whom I had then not the least knowledge of) and de-
manded to see some of my rooms, which he was informed I proposed to let.

He had no servant with him, but an arrogant, hauty carriage, which in the
opinion of most men is a necessary or insepparable accomplishment in what they
call a Person of Note, would at once indicate to you that in his own thoughts he
was a person of no mean Rank or Dignity. The pride of sometimes putting on
mean clothes or going unattended, I had seen before, but none to appear to me

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

so ridiculously as now. However, I showed him my rooms, and treated him
with the same deference and respect as even in his own sentiments he had a
right to expect, supposing also I had known him. We had some talk about the
price of several apartments, but he soon let me understand that his design was
upon my Whole House, he modestly proposing that I should resign the Lease
I had taken of it to him, and take off from his hands another house in Town
which he had hired, but did not like, tho’ to evince his great kindness and
condescendesion in the matter, he assured me the house, which he proposed to
favor me with, was much better one than mine, would come at less rent and
would likewise suit my intended business better- -and he named the house to
me ---vizt. that Dr. Dixon quitted.

As to which house was the best, I assured him it was a matter that I would
not presume to dispute; but humbly craved his leave to be of a different opinion
as to the convincing of dividing it into various departments. Its vicinity also to
the Capitol, I as I likewise craved leave to inform him, gave it the preference in
(my) humble apprehension, as its situation for business, on which I said
chiefly depended; besides — as I ventured to observe, the roominess of mine,
when Mr. Wetherburn had repaired it, would enable me to let out so much
thereof as would absolutely pay the whole of my rent, reserving what would be
quite sufficient to carry on my own business. To this he replied I was under a
great mistake and delusion if I preferred to think Mr. Wetherburn would ever
repair the House while I continued in it, or would grant me any further Lease
when the Three Years was expired; that he would not have me flatter myself
with the vain idea or reaping any of the benefits 1 had proposed; for I should
only deceive myself therein. The best thing I could do was to take his generous
offer, and that if I did not, I should surely repent it. To all which I only en-
treated he would allow me to suspend my thinking Mr. Wetherburn had any
intention of acting so dishonorably by me; and that I must at least experience
somewhat of what he was pleased to assure me should happen, before it was in
my power to believe it possible.

Upon my saying this, he turned immediately out of the house seemingly very
much offended. However in less than an hour, he sent his servant who in-
formed me it was his master’s order that I should attend him immediately at
Mr. Wetherburn’s and on my enquiring of the servant, who his master was, he
seemed surprised at my not knowing that it was Col. Lee, eldest Son and heir
to the late President of the Council. On my arrival at Mr. Wetherburn’s the
noble Col. : with a haughtiness peculiar to himself (as being in the superlative
degree to any I had ever beheld, even in this Country) informed me that since
I refused to credit him on the affair we had been talking about, he had sent for
me to receive satisfaction upon the subject from Mr. Wetherburn himself, and
closing the whole of his genteel behaviour with observing if I still persisted in
my obstinacy in refusing him my house, I might have time to repent of it. He
turned from me with an air of what they call a Gentleman.

Thus the narrative goes on at some length, showing in vivid detail the
viewpoint of the Williamsburg tradesman. In the absence of any account

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

from the pen of Philip Ludwell his side of the episode is not known.
The full significance of the narrative, therefore, cannot be determined.
No doubt Philip was self-important and pompous. Perhaps he felt that,
as head of the House of Lee, his voice was not to be questioned. At the
same time, insofar as the management and development of Stratford
Plantation went, he evidenced more practical ability than any other
member of the family.

The properties of Thomas Lee were widely scattered, and this fact may
account in some degree for the long period of time taken by Philip — at
least eight years — to have the estate appraised and inventories taken of
the goods and furnishings of Stratford Hall. To William’s sharp com-
plaints he wrote:

I suppose you will hear from R. H. Lee that the Executors have refused to
divide the estate ’till October; I wonder you shd. not know they wd. refuse; by
the will if the young ladies dye under particular circumstances, they get the
Estate; had I been concerned for that reason I wd. have made them done it
instantly. How cd. you appoint yr. two Brothers, who know nothing of survey-
ing or good land from bad and one of the Executors who I have heard you
talk of you know how, to divide it? Something shd. be speedily done for the
Estate, tho’ fine, does not make enough to bare the Expenses of it; I wonder
you don’t come in to see it divided and to live on it, if you do not it will always
bring you in debt, remember I tell you so.

Through the Court Orders of the Virginia Westmoreland Records
for 1751-1764 an accurate picture of the legal and domestic situation
of the family is obtained:

[July 30, 1752.] The Last Will and Testament of the Honble Thos. Lee,
Esq. dec’d was presented into Court by Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. his son and
heir at Law and one of his Exors. therein named, who made Oath thereto and
being Written with his own hand W riting and recorded sometime ago, is now
ordered to be Lodged and Certificate granted to the sd. Philip Ludwell Lee
for obtaining a probate thereof &c.

[March 27, 1754.] Francis Lightfoot Lee, infant Orphan of the Honble
Thos. Lee, Esq. dec’d Came into Court and chose Henry Lee for his Guardian
and sd. Henry Lee together with Geo. Lee his Security acknowledged their
Bond for the same.

[March 27, 1754.] It is ordered that Andrew Monroe, Richard Jackson, Peter
Rust and Richard Lee, Gents, or any three of them (being first sworn) before
a Justice of the peace for this County) do Appraise the Estate of Thos. Lee,
Esq. dec’d and return their proceedings thereof to next Court.

[March 27, 1754.] [It is] ordered that John Lee, Peter Hogman, Richard
Bernard, Benjamin Strother or any three of them do appraise the Estate of
Thos. Lee, Esq. in Stafford County and make report to next Court held for this
County.

100

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

[March 27, 1754.] [It is] ordered that Lewis Elzey, Chas. Broadwater,
Anthony Ruport and Hugh Woot appraise Estate of Thos. Lee, Esq. in Fairfax
and make report.

[March 27, 1754.] Thos. Ludwell Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Esq. Francis
Lightfoot Lee, by Henry Lee his Guardian and William, Arthur and Alice Lee,
Infants by the sd. Henry Lee, their next friend Complaints vs. Philip Ludwell
Lee, Esq. Respondent — In Chancery. By Consent of parties it is referred to
Richard Corbin, Philip Ludwell, Esq. and George Lee to settle and adjust all
matters in difference between the Contending parties as a decree of this Court.

[Sept. 24, 1754.] The Suit in Chancery brought by Thomas Lee, Esq. and
others against Phil. Ludwell Lee Exor. of Thos. Lee, Esq. dec’d is Con'd for
Referrees Report.

[March 26, 1755.] Ordered that the Sheriff do sumon Philip Ludwell Lee
Esq. to be and appear at the next Court to enter into Bond with Security for his
due Execution of the Last Will and Testament of the Honble Thos. Lee, Esq.
and to shew Cause why the Estate has not been appraised.

[May 27, 1755.] The order to sumon Philip Ludwell Lee to enter into Bond
for the Exor. of the Honble Thos. Lee, Esq. Will &c. is Cont’d.

[May 29, 1755.] The Suit in Chancery — Thos. Ludwell Lee and others vs.
Phil. Ludwell Lee acting Exor. of the Last Will of the Honble Thos. Lee, Esq.
dec’d for the Referres report.

[June 24, 1755.] The order to sumon Phil Ludwell Lee, Esq. concerning the
Execution of the last Will of the Honble Thos. Lee Esq. is Con’t.

[July 30, 1755.] Thos. Ludwell Lee and others by Henry Lee their Guardian
and next friend Pltf. vs. Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. acting Exor. of the Honble
Thos. Lee, Esq. Deft. — Con’t for Report of Referees.

[July 30 1755.] The order to sumon Philip Ludwell Lee, Gent, concerning
the Execution of the Will of the Honble Thos. Lee, Esq., dec’d (and also of his
entering into Bond with Security for the same) not having complyed with it is
therefore again Ordered that the Sheriff of this County do sumon the sd. Phil.
Ludwell Lee to appear at next Court for the same purpose.

[Jan. 29, 1756.] Thos. Lud. Lee and others vs. Phil . Lud. Lee Exor of Thos.
Lee, Esq. Chancery — Cont’d.

[Feb 26, 1757.] The Summons against Philip Ludwell Lee to give Security
for the Execution of the Will of the Honble. Thos. Lee, Esq. is dismissed.

[Aug. 29, 1758.] An Inventory and Appraisement of the Estate of the Honble
Thomas Lee, Esq. in Westmoreland County was returned into Court and
ordered to be Recorded.

[June 26, 1759.] Thos. Ludwell Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Esq. Francis Light-
foot Lee an Infant by Henry Lee, Gent, his Guardian, William Lee, Arthur Lee
and Miss Alice Lee Infants by sd. Henry Lee their next Friend agt. Philip
Ludwell Lee, Esq. acting Exor. of Thos. Lee, Esq. Dec’d — Chancery — Cont’d.

[May 27, 1760.] A Power of Attorney passed from Alice Lee to William
Lee, Gent. — proved by the oath of James Russell and Ann Hartly. An Instru-
ment of Writing from Alice Lee to William Lee, Gent, was proved by Jas.
Russell and Ann Hartly.

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

101

[Aug. 25, 1761.] Inventory of the Estate of the Honble Thos. Lee, Esq.
Dec’d in Loudon County returned and recorded.

[Aug. 26, 1761. J The Suit in Chancery commenced by Thos. Lee, Esq. and
others agt. The Honorable Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. Exor of Thos Lee, Esq. is
Cont’d

[Mch. 29, 1764.] Thos. Lee, Esq. and others agt. The honble Philip Ludwell
Lee, Esq. Exor. &c. of Thos. Lee, Esq. dec’d — In Chancery — Cont’d until the
next Court by Consent of the parties.

[May 29, 1764. | The Presentment of the Grand Jury agt. the Honble Philip
Lee, Esq. for reasons appearing to the Court is dismist.

Because of the discord and the incessant litigation within the family
it is not strange that Alice Lee at length determined to give up, for a
small stipulated sum, her right and title to the property and legacies
willed her by her father and leave Stratford to live in England. The
first item recording her decision is in the inventories and accounts book
of the Westmoreland Record, Page 115, as follows:

Know all men by these Present that I Alice Lee of the County of Westmore-
land and Colony of Virginia do give grant assign and make over to Mr. William
Lee of the aforesaid County and Colony all my right and title to and Property
in all the Legacies left me by my father the Late Honble Thomas Lee in his
Last will and all my Estate Possession Properties and Effects that I now have or
hereafter may have in this Colony to him the said William Lee and his heirs
forever in Consideration of forty pounds Sterling to be paid me or my order
annually from the date hereof in London, during my natural Life and no
Longer. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this third
day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty.

Signed: Alice Lee.

Signed sealed and acknowledged in Presence of James Russell, Philip Barnett,
Ann Hartlee, Elizabeth Russell.

At a Court held for the said County the 27th day of May 1760. This Instru-
ment of Writing Passed from Miss Alice Lee to William Lee Gent, was Proved
by the oaths of James Russell and Ann Hartlee two of the Witnesses thereto
and ordered to be recorded. Recorded the 30th day of June 1760.

Arthur Lee and his brother William spent much of their lives abroad
and some of their most important activities were devoted to the welfare
of the young republic. They were to labor "in the vineyard of liberty”
across the seas, yet hand in hand with their brothers of Stratford—
Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, and Francis Lightfoot.

The Great House, presided over bv Philip Lee, remained "bachelor’s
hall” until the late seventeen-fifties. Then the marriages of the Strat-
ford Lees began to take place. Thomas, who had left Stratford some-

102 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

time before to settle in Stafford County, married Mary Aylett of King
William County. According to Lee of Virginia the Ayletts were an
ancient family of England claiming descent from a companion of the
Conqueror, whose sons obtained grants of land in Cornwall: "In 1656,
it is said, a Captain John Aylett emigrated from Essex County, England,
to Virginia, and later took up large tracts of land in the present county
of King William. This Captain Aylett left a son, Philip, who settled
in King William in 1686; he was succeeded by his son William, who
represented that county as Burgess in 1723-26."

Thomas Ludwell Lee was termed by Chancellor Wythe, "the most
popular man in Virginia, and the delight of the eyes of every Virginian,
but . . . would not engage in public life." He was, however, at all
times an ardent patriot and was united with his younger brothers in
practically every measure they advocated in support of the colonies
against the tyranny of Great Britain.

Richard Henry also married into the Aylett family. His marriage to
Anne, sister of Mary Aylett, took place in 1757 and he brought his bride
to Stratford, where they lived for several years until their new home was
completed. In 1762 Alice Lee was married in London to Dr. William
Shippen, Junior, of Philadelphia.

Meanwhile Philip Lee, master of Stratford, married. His bride was
Elizabeth Steptoe of Westmoreland, a young girl, gracious, accom-
plished, and very lovely. She was the daughter of Dr. James Steptoe,
member of a prominent family of planters established in the Northern
Neck from the middle seventeenth century. When Dr. Steptoe died
in 1756, he appointed Colonel Philip Ludwell Lee guardian of his
daughter Elizabeth. Shortly afterward Philip married his ward. With
the coming of a daughter of the Steptoe family to be the second mistress
of Stratford Hall, its household affairs were reorganized on a new and
harmonious basis, and it became once more a social center for the neigh-
borhood. According to Westmoreland tradition, Elizabeth Steptoe Lee
was exceedingly fond of social life; and, being many years her husband’s
junior, she brought to Stratford a new element of youth, gaiety and
charm.

The house built by Richard Henry Lee was on a part of Stratford
Plantation which bordered the river. In 1763 he leased from Philip five-
hundred acres, including the mills and the wooded bluffs below Strat-
ford Landing. This series of high perpendicular cliffs was then known
as Hollis Cliffs and later as the Cliffs of Nominy. According to the Rev.

104 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

George W. Beale, Richard Henry Lee erected "a handsome and com-
modious wooden mansion” here on a circular eminence overlooking the
Potomac — a retired and beautiful spot three miles or so distant from the
Great House. A narrow, densely shaded road wound through the deep
woods to this new home.

"The approach . . . was through a level plain of light, sandy soil
of varying width, here broad and there narrow, as two deep, winding
ravines on either hand approached, or receded from each other, the edges
of these deep-wooded hollows at one or two points being so near to-
gether as to barely leave space between for the roadway. The rounding
elevation on which the house was built was bounded on two sides bv
these deep ravines, and towards the north by a steep declivity, which
fell abruptly to the level of the tide. It commanded a noble and en-
chanting view of field and forest, green meadows and winding stream,
of the long arm of Hollis’s marsh, encircling in part Curri[o]man bay,
and beyond, the Potomac spreading for six miles to the Maryland shore.
. . . Mr. Lee completed his building here about the time that the young
Prince of Conde, in the interval of rest from warlike engagements, was
making his seat near Paris the most noted literary centre in Europe.
Richard Henry Lee named his home Chantilly after that famous cha-
teau. ...”

The Virginia Chantilly was, however, the very heart of solitude. Wil-
derness itself — cliffs and woods and encompassing waters — it bore not
the slightest physical resemblance to Chantilly of France. Yet, like that
noble French chateau, it became a place where men could meet and new
ideas find root. Richard Henry and Anne Aylett Lee went to live there
early in the seventeen-sixties. This section of the Stratford estate became
henceforth the scene of Richard Henry’s studies, of his correspondence,
and of much of his political activity.

His arrangement with Philip was for a long-term lease of Chantilly,
the details being as follows: "Lease between Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee
and Richard Henry Lee, Esq. 500 Acres lying in Cople parish between
the land of Maj. Thomas Chilton and the Hallow’s marsh plantation be-
longing to the said Philip Ludwell Lee — Northeast side of a marsh
which Marsh is on the Northwest side of the HOUSE built by sd. Rich-
ard Henry Lee — including 500 Acres of land with all houses, Buildings,
vards, gardens, Orchards, Woods, water, water courses &c. — to said
Richard Henry Lee and Ann his wife and Ludwell Lee son of said Rich-
ard Henry Lee during the life and lives of the longer liver of them — for

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

105

the yearly rent of 2650 lbs. of Tobacco — said Richard Henrv Lee to pav
all rents and quit rents and make needful reparations — said Philip Lud-
well Lee claims right to enter said premises at any time to view and give
monition to repair and amends to said premises &c.

"Recorded Feb. 22, 1763.

"Wit: John Washington, James Davenport, Anthony Stewart.”'

Chantilly is described in a letter written September 29, 1790, bv
Thomas Lee Shippen to his parents in Philadelphia:

Chantilly . . . commands a much finer view than Stratford by reason of a large
bay into which the Patowmac forms itself opposite,... and a charming little creek
whose windings spread across and water the space which lies between Chantilly
and the river. Besides these, a fine island called Blackstone’s adds a finish to
the landscape. At Chantilly you have every thing that is most excellent in fish
crabs wild fowl and exquisite meats — the best of liquors — and a most hearty
welcome. The house is rather commodious than elegant. The setting room
which is very well ornamented is 30 feet by 18 and the dining room 24 feet by
20. My uncle has a charming little daughter whom you remember he mentioned
to us — his little beauty. Her name is Sally and she is every thing her friends
could wish. The pleasure which so many agreable circumstances necessarily
afforded us at Chantilly were not a little interrupted by the extreme indisposition
of the family — Excepting Sally there was not one of them perfectly well. You
were very frequently mentioned & wished for. We never sat down to a fine
rock fish, soft crab or wild duck without my uncle R’s wishing for vou to par-
take of it. His wishes were those of the table. The soft crabs are to be sure
most delicious.3

Speaking of Chantilly, Edmund Jennings Lee says: "From the inven-
tory and appraisement of the furniture, etc., it is learned that there were
a dining-room, library, parlor, and chamber on the first floor. The hall
being, as was usual, furnished as a sitting-room, contained: a mahogany
desk, twelve arm chairs, a round and a square table, a covered walnut
table, two boxes of tools, and a trumpet. On the second floor there were
four large chambers, and a smaller one at the head of stairs; two rooms in
third floor; store rooms, and closets. The out buildings mentioned were:
kitchen, dairy, blacksmith shop, stable, and barn. The enumeration of
the books in the library showed about 500 separate works, on science,
history, politics, medicine, farming, etc., etc., which were appraised
at £229 10s. 7d.”

This description of the books at Chantilly is supplemented by Dr.
Beale: "The library here was an extensive one, and had been selected

'Supplementary Records. Y : Chantilly.

“Original letter. September 29. 1790. from Thomas Lee Shippen to his father. Shippen
Papers. Library of Congress.

106 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

with much care. Many of the volumes were bound in rich and costly
style, a few of which, bearing Mr. Lee’s autograph, are still treasured in
Westmoreland, the last remaining souvenirs of Chantilly.”

He gives further an interesting account of the wild life in this lower
Potomac region, of which Stratford Plantation, with its 6,500 acres,
formed so large a part: "From the grounds surrounding the mansion
there extended up and down the river shore and inland, for miles con-
tinuous stretches of forest, abounding in deer, wild turkeys, and foxes,
which invited and cheered the huntsman’s chase. The waters, towards
which the north windows of the building opened, swarmed through
the winter months with wild geese, and ducks of many and choice varie-
ties. For hunting these Mr. Lee had a fondness, and bore through the
most of his life a mark of it in a disabled and disfigured hand, caused
by the bursting of his gun.”

A picture of this nesting place of eagles, and the "water-pastures” of
the swans is drawn by Charles Carter Lee (son of Light-Horse Harry Lee,
who was born at Stratford a generation later), in his very original
verse, Virginia Georgies:

Oh! I have seen where broad Potomac lifts,

In Westmoreland, its surges ’gainst its cliffs,

From those high bluffs, where such great men were born,

The birth-place of the greater Washington:

There rush the sea-urged billows rest to seek
Through the shallow, narrow entrance of Pope’s Creek,

And spread in peace, all hushed their troubled roar,

Before the ancient Washingtonian door:

There the calm shores an ample peaceful bed
For the tossed surges of the river spread, —

And water-fowl of every exquisite kind
In its clear shallows plenteous feeding find,

And on the river flats, outside the Creek,

The glorious swans their water-pastures seek;

And on the aged trees, by cliff and bay,

The eagles watch to strike their feathered prey.

I’ve seen, when hunting crowned my youthful glee,

As many as seven on a single tree . . .

i i i i

Late in the winter of 1768, Mary Aylett Lee, the young wife of Rich-
ard Henry, died at Chantilly. She was buried in Burnt House Fields
and a monument to her memory was placed in the church near Chan-
tilly. A description of "my dear Mrs. Lee’s monument in Nominy

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

107

Church” with a copy of the inscription on the tablet was found by
Edmund Jennings Lee in a manuscript in Richard Henry’s handwriting:
Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Anne Lee, wife of Col. Richard H Lee. This
monument was erected by her afflicted husband, in the year 1769.

Reflect dear reader on the great uncertainty of human life, since neither
esteemed temperament nor the most amiable goodness could save this excel-
lent Lady from death in the bloom of Life. She left behind her four children,
two sons and two daughters, Obiit 12th December, 1768, aet. 30.

'Was then so precious a flower
But given us to behold it waste,

The short lived blossom of an hour,

Too nice, too fair, too sweet to last.”

i i i i

Colonel John Tayloe of Mount Airy, member of the King’s Council,
was one of the group of large planters who invariably spent "the season”
at Williamsburg with his family. His wife was Rebecca Plater, daughter
of Governor George Plater of Maryland. Each one of their eight daugh-
ters was a belle of the little capital city. Rebecca, or "Becky” as she was
called, the second daughter, named for her mother, was singularly lov-
able and attractive. She was sixteen vears old when Francis Lightfoot
Lee, then Burgess from Loudoun County, fell in love with her.

The Tayloe family, like the Lees, Corbins, Fitzhughs, Steptoes, Av-
letts, and others, had been established in the Colony since the middle of
the seventeenth century. The founder of the family, William Tayloe,
came from England. Through his marriage to Anne Corbin, daughter
of Henry Corbin, the family was connected with the Lees. Like Strat-
ford, Nominy, Peckatone, Marmion, Bushfield, and Sabine Hall, the
Tayloe home, Mount Airy on the Rappahannock, was one of the im-
portant houses of the Northern Neck. Built almost a generation later
than Stratford, it has a certain grace of architecture, a sophisticated
character peculiar to itself. It is the dream of an eighteenth century poet.
No house more graceful or more beautiful was built in Virginia or in
any one of the colonies, nor ever stood on a lovelier or more peaceful
site — a gentle English scene of park and fields and undulating hills, and
beyond, the river softly flowing like the Thames in Spenser’s song.
Fithian, who knew the house well, speaks of it in his journal:

. . . He [Councillor Carter] has given Ben and me an Invitation to ride out
and spend this Evening with him at Colonel Tayloe’ s. We set out about three;
Mr. Carter travels in a small, neat Chair , with two waiting Men. We rode
across the Country which is now in full Bloom; in every field we saw Negroes
planting Corn, or plowing, or hoeing; we arrived at the Colonels about five,

108 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Distance twelve miles. Here is an elegant Seat! The House is about the Size
of Mr. Carters, built with stone, and finished curiously, and ornamented with
various paintings, and rich Pictures. This Gentleman owns Yorick, who won
the prize of 500£ last November, from Dr. Floods Horse Gift. In the Dining-
Room, besides many other fine Pieces, are twenty four of the most celebrated
among the English Race-Horses, Drawn masterly, and set in elegant gilt Frames.
He has near the great House, two f ? ] stone Houses, the one is used as a
Kitchen, and the other, for a nursery, and Lodging Rooms . . .

In the spring of 1769, Francis Lightfoot Lee married Becky Tayloe.
He was thirty-five, she seventeen. Becky was so beloved by her father that
he could not see her settling down in far-off Loudoun County. He gave
her and his son-in-law a wedding gift of a large portion of Mount Airy
Plantation and built a manor house for them. It was a house small,
compact, exquisite in its general design and in its interior detail.

The land embraced the Menokin hills through which wound Menokin
Creek. The house took the Indian name of its locality and has been
known since the time it was finished — 1769 — as Menokin House. A
description of the place was written in the eighteen-eighties by G. W.
Beale:

Menokin House is situated on the hills above the creek of that name, in
Richmond county, and commands an extended view of the low lying plane and
marshes stretching away to the Rappahannock river. . . . Beyond the formid-
able Menokin Mill hills, . . . the gate admits to a private road, which skirts
several fields and terminates at the house, which is half a mile or more distant
from the gate . . .

The building . . . is a massive quadrangular structure of native red sand-
stone in an excellent state of preservation. It is marked by the ponderous
chimneys, immense hall, and wainscoting so common in Colonial edifices. Its
erection marks the transitional stage of Colonial architecture . . . yet showing
more solidity and durability of construction than was commonly true of houses
erected after the Revolution.

There was apparently widespread interest in the romance of Beckv
Tayloe and Frank Lee. Undoubtedly Frank had been "the catch of Wil-
liamsburg,” yet had remained so long a bachelor that he had been des-
ignated as "not the marrying kind.” Certainly Rebecca Tayloe was the
little princess of the capital city of the Colony as well as of Mount Airy.
Frank worshipped her. The two were so happy that their whole world
rejoiced with them. President Nelson of the Council wrote to Arthur
Lee in London, March 31, 1769: "No doubt you have heard of the hap-
piness of your brother Frank and Miss Becky.”

With his return to the Northern Neck of Virginia after his marriage,
Francis Lightfoot Lee represented Richmond County as Burgess. From

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

109

Menokin, he went as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Devoted
to his home, he was never happy when long away from it. Like his
father, he was a horticulturist, and established at Menokin a nursery
where he experimented with all sorts of trees, plants, fruits, and flowers,
as Thomas Lee had done at Stratford.

From the references in the Lee family letters a state of happiness
ideal in its sincerity, simplicity, and beauty existed at Menokin House
and in the lives of Frank and Becky Lee. In a letter to his father dated
September 29, 1790, Thomas Lee Shippen writes of Menokin:

I find my uncle & aunt Frank as happily situated as it is possible in this world
to be except their want of society which they have in themselves only — They
are prodigiously kind to me & to poor Baptist wrho has the fever and ague — I
have escaped only by taking a dose of bark every day — My aunt is both Baptist’s
nurse & mine. She often talks of you & Phib What a favorite you are in Vir-
ginia— attribute it not to flattery when I say what I really think that you ought
to be so ev[e]ry where. God bless you my dear father.

Thomas Shippen’s sister, Nancy Livingston, was particularly devoted
to her uncle Frank, and, shortly after her marriage, wrote an affectionate
sonnet to him:

Thou sweetest of all the Lee race
That ever adorned our shore,

O with us do fix thine abode

And leave Philadelphia no more.

Thy temper’s as soft as the dove’s
When she warbles aloft in the air,

And thy converse enchantingly sweet

When engaged in discourse with the fair.

But when learning engrosses thy thought
Then thy genius shines brighter and best
And shews that thou surely wilt be
An adornment to all in the West.

O that thou mayest chuse but to live

Where I thy sweet friendship may prove
It will smooth the remains of my life
Until I shall meet thee above.

And there if our happy lot’s cast
In those blessed regions to stay,

No gloomy dark night shall we know
But one clear and bright, perfect day.

A H S Livingston

Sonnet addressed to Mr Francis Lightfoot Lee of Virginia

by A. H. S. L.

During the latter years of the Revolution when it was not practicable

110 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

for her to be with her husband, Becky Lee frequently took refuge at Strat-
ford from alarms and excursions. A letter addressed there by her
husband is among Lee records in the Pennsylvania Historical Society:

Richmond Dec. 2
1780

My dearest Becky:

This day I rec’d your letter from S.[tratford] Hall by Capt. Ball. Glad to
find you have recovered from your panic. Indeed it surprises me that you
should be so easily frightened who have been so much accustomed to alarms
much more serious than any we have here. Those who live at the mouths of the
Rivers or on the banks of the broad waters are certainly in great danger of
losing their property by the enemy’s privateers but I hope something will soon
be done for their relief. It is true Col. Fitzhugh and [illegible] houses are
burnt [Col] Burwell plundered by the enemy. The Assembly breaks up at Xmas.
I intend to try for leave of absence if obtained you my depend upon my being
very speedily with you, — however don’t be too sanguine and fatigue yourself
with looking up the Road, be assured that every inducement will hurry me on
and the less expected my arrival perhaps the more agreeable it will be. God
bless you my love.4

Edmund Jennings Lee preserves a letter from Frank to his beloved
Becky which gives a particularly vivid picture of the times and condi-
tions under which they were living during 1780. It also expresses the
sweetness and charm of their relationship:

Richmond, 13 Nov., 1780. My Dearest Love: I, this moment, had the pleas-
ure of your letter by Jupiter. You are wrong indeed my Love, to confine your-
self so much at home. I beg you will endeavour to amuse yourself, so much
anxiety and gloomishness is enough to give you a headache, which for my
sake pray avoid; for nothing can compensate to me, for your want of health.
Sutton’s behaviour vexes me much; I cannot conceive what the fellow can mean.
I now write to him. The small quantity of peas really surprises me, there were
several bushels in the field when I left home; they have certainly let the fowls
and other things eat them up. As Garland cannot supply oil for the leather,
tallow, with a very little butter, will answer the purpose; please to weigh what
you furnish that I may know whether it is properly used. Your supply of cash,
gave me pleasure, as it was one more instance, added to thousands, of your
affection; but upon the whole I could not help being a little angry at your having
disfurnished yourself; small as it was it might have been of some little use to
you, here it is as a drop in the ocean? Indeed, my dear, you must not suppose
that I can have any enjoyment in which you have not a share.

Mr. Joe Jones, R. H. L. and myself are in pretty good lodgings. Mr. Page left
us a few days agoe, having received advice that his father, who had got home,
was in a very dangerous way. I suppose he will not return. I am now well, the

“This letter has not been collated with the original.

THE SECOND MASTER OE STRATFORD

111

cold in my head being nearly gone. There is no prospect of the Assembly
rising till Christmas, but you may be assured I will get off as soon as possible.
1 cannot say at present when that may be, for we have not yet a senate; but 1
hope we shall soon have some members to spare. As soon as I see a prospect I
will inform you of it. In the meantime, let me again entreat you to fall upon
some method of deverting yourself, either by going abroad or inviting others
to join you at Menokin, or both.

We have nothing new since my last; by the motion of the Enemy below, it
looks as if they meant to winter there; in which case, they will give us a good
deal of trouble; but at the same time they give us an opening for a good stroke
in our favour, if the French force should come upon our coast, which is not im-
probable. Love to Miss Sally and other friends, I am dearest Becky your ever
affectionate, etc.

P. S. — The milch cows will have the fresh gathered corn-fields to run in,
where I expect they will have plenty of good food; therefore it will be better not
to stall them yet, as we have a long winter to go thro.

Coincident with the marriage of Frank Lee and Becky Tayloe was
that of William Lee and his first cousin, Hannah Philippa Ludwell.
Their wedding took place in 1769 in London, where William had been
living for three years.

Hannah Philippa Ludwell was the elder of the two daughters of
Frances Grymes and the third Philip Ludwell, brother of Hannah Lud-
well Lee. She was born and reared at Green Spring. After her mother’s
death, about 1758, her father left their home in Virginia and established
his family in London. There Alice Lee visited them, and doubtless
made her home with them until her marriage to William Shippen, Jr.
Their house must also have been a temporary home for Arthur Lee and
a stopping place for William in his many voyages between England
and Virginia before he settled in England with a view to making his
stay permanent.

William gave the first news of his wedding on March 20, 1769, to
"Squire” Lee of Lee Hall:

Having wrote you so lately I have little new[s] now, only to acknowledge
the rec.t of your obliging favor of Jan. 17 last for which I thank you I hope to
hear from you by every op-ty [ ? ] not impossible, as news flys so quick,
but you may hear of my being marryed to Miss Ludwell, before this gets to
hand, but sh.d you not, you are to know that we were fairly united by the matri-
monial noose on the 7.th inst. & by the next advice I expect to hear you have
played the same Game with Miss I.

As we design to live here, I am fixed in my dfetermijnation to pursue the
Tob.° business, if I find encouragement from my Friends on y.r side [of the]
Atlantic, & upon the terms I formerly wrote The business of my relations alone
if they wi[li] join in the scheme, wou’d be sufficient for me . . .

112 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

In his letter to Frank congratulating him upon his marriage to Becky
Tayloe, Arthur Lee also speaks of William’s wedding:

My dear Brother . . . May I give you joy as I do our Brother William who
has changed his voyage to India in the Princess of Wales into one to the land of
matrimony in the Miss Ludwell. As a warm climate suits not with him I hope
he will find a temperate one in the place of his destination. The Esquire writes
him of your being no longer a member of the Assembly. How immoderately
lazy you are!

I have sent all his political pamphlets worth reading to Richard Henrv which
I suppose you will read.5

Philip Lee sent rather wry-faced congratulations, and broke the long
silence between himself and William with a broadside of family and
neighborhood news and gossip, declaring what "a marrying year” 1769
had been!

Dear Brother: Though you wd. not write me of your good tidings amongst
others you wrote, yet I shall be amongst the first to wish you joy very heartily;
one of the most amiable women in the world you have possession of and I hope
and Don't doubt you will do everything in yr. power to make her as happy as
mortals can be, in gratefull return . . .

Mrs. Lee and Matilda wish you joy. I enclose a letter from Miss Galloway.
Our Bro: Franc: Lee was married to Miss Rebec: Tayloe last Thursday: to-
morrow Patty Corbin and Geo: Turberville are to be married; Davenport is
married to Miss Ransdell, Miss Betty Washington to Alex’r Spotswood, Nancy
Washington to Burdet Ashton, Miss Cate Vaulx to young Banhead, Thos.
Turner to Miss Jane Fauntleroy, Dr. Fauntleroy of Leeds to Miss Fauntleroy
of Essex, Landon Carter, son of old Charles, is to be married in a little while
to Miss Molly Fauntleroy of Naylor’s Hole; Merriwether Smith is to marry in
a few days Miss Daingerfield of Essex with £1,500 fortune; Widow Rust at
Rust's Ferry to Corrie, Hobs Hole, mar’d some months, and sundry others; so
you see this has been a marrying year . . . Miss Bushrod is mar’d to Phil:
Smith; the Widow Lee of Jno: Lee to old Jno: Smith the inoculator . . .

Virg’a Stratford, 31, May, 1769.

A resume of much of the family news is also given by William Lee in
an account of the Lee family written in London in September, 1771:

Philip Ludwell is now of the Council in Virginia, is married, has two
daughters and lives at Stratford on Potomack River, Virginia; Thomas Ludwell
is married, has several children and lives at Bellevue on Potomack River, Vir-
ginia; Richard Henry is married, and lives at Chantilly, Potomack River, Vir-
ginia, and has several children; Francis Lightfoot two years ago, married a
daughter, and one that will be a coheiress of the Hon. John Tayloe of Virginia;
he has no child, and lives at Menokin on Rappahanoc River in Virginia. Wil-
liam. the writer of this account, in 1769, married in London Miss Hannah
Philippa Ludwell. He has no children and is settled as a Virginia merchant on

:'This letter has not been collated with the original.

THE SECOND MASTER OF STRATFORD

113

Tower Hill, London. Arthur studied Physic at Edinburgh, where he took his
degrees, but disliking the [medical] profession, he entered about two years ago
as a student of law at Lincoln’s Inn and is now at No. 3 Essex Court in the
Temple, prosecuting his studies. The two daughters, Hannah and Alice, were
both well married, and are settled in America. . . .

Of all the Stratford Lees, even in this ’'marrying year,” Arthur Lee
alone is left, "the only unhappy or single person,” as he says, "of the
family.” On August 4, 1769, he writes from Bristol Wells to felicitate
his brother Richard Henry on his second marriage, to Anne Gaskins
Pinckard of Westmoreland:

Bristol-Wells, 4th August, 1769. My dear Brother, — I am sorry you have
so much reason to complain of my neglect; for which I must rely on your good-
ness to pardon me. My letters by Johnston brought me an account of your
marriage; on which I give you and Mrs. Lee joy with all my heart. The union
which crowns a mutual affection long tried, promises the most permanent fe-
licity; and I hope every succeeding moon will find you equally happy with the
first. I am now the only unhappy or single person of the family; nor have I
any prospect of being otherwise. 1 have spent this season at the Bristol Wells
in pursuit of practice and to make acquaintances, and shall remain the winter
at Bath with the same views. In the latter it is easy to succeed, in the first not
quite so easy here as at Williamsburg. Perseverance, of which unhappily I
have very little, is absolutely requisite to accomplish this business. I often feel
so home sick that I cannot bear the thoughts of living forever from you; so
that if I am not very short lived I feel I must make another trip to see you.

Contrasted with that of this country, how illustriously eminent does the patri-
otic conduct of Virginia appear. I had my fears, my anxieties about Virginia,
but my countrymen have fulfilled my most sanguine wishes and acquired an
honour which can never be tarnished. Here the spirit of liberty is very languid,
and all attempts to rouse it meet with very little success. Corruption has spread
its baneful influence so universally, that this country seems now to be nearly in
that state in which Jugurtha found Rome when he exclaimed,

"O venalem urbem, et cito perituram, si emptorem invenies.”

However, the utmost endeavours are used to awaken a proper resentment of
the atrocious injuries which have been offered to the constitution. And though
I believe they will obtain petitions enough to awe the ministry, yet I do not
hope to see all the grievances fully redressed, and the authors of them brought
to condign punishment. With respect to us the ministry speak in a conciliating
tone, but they are so void of all virtue that no credit is due to them, especially
as their principles are most notoriously arbitrary. Persevere in the plan of fru-
gality and industry, encourage and confirm a spirit never to submit or yield, and
you will compel them to be iust — hae tibi artes, haec arms; and may heaven
render them invincible.

CHAPTER VI: THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

ABAY MARE "with a star in her forehead” was the first "wriding
horse” of a Stratford Lee. One of the large number of horses
h. of the Matholic stables, she was given by the second Richard
Lee to his son Thomas, September 25, 1706. At the same time he gave
two other mares to Thomas’ older brother Francis. The document in the
Westmoreland Records recording the episode is entitled, Richard Lee’s
' 'guift to his sons.”

I am minded to make deeds of guift to three of my sons of the mares under-
written with their increase at present and to come according to their flesh marks
and brand marks hereunder written. I would have a deed of guift recorded for
the use of my son Francis of two bay mares branded with the figure 2 upon the
rear buttock and a Starr in either of their foreheads with all their increase past
and to come.

Likewise I would have recorded in the Records of the Court of Westmore-
land that I give to my son Thomas one bay mare at present in Middlesex with
a star in her forehead, one of her hinder feet white, branded with ... on the rear
buttock with all the increase of the said mare past and to come and a black
horse branded with ... on the rear buttock. Likewise I would have recorded in
the said Court records that I give to my son Henry one dark bay horse with a
Starr in his forehead, branded on the rear buttock with the figure 2 and one
bright bay mare branded with ... on the rear buttock and one of her hinder feet
with all the increase of the said mare past and to come — Richard Lee. Capt.
McCarty — I am not able to ride soe farr have sent my son Francis with this to
you whereby I impower you as my Attorney for me and in my name to move the
Court that the above deed may be recorded as a free gift from me to my said
sons in my life time if you please to move in my name and behalf for leave that
they may be recorded I nothing doubt it will be readily granted. I am with my
service to the worshipful Court of Westd. Sr. yr humble serv’t — Richd Lee.

Perhaps the sixteen-year-old Thomas Lee rode this mare over Strat-
ford ground when he was exploring its mysterious ravines and coveting
its beauties even then. Some few years later, when he had become the
owner of the Clifts and was building his Great House, he reared exten-
sive barns, huge brick stables, and a coach house in contemplation
of just such purposes as they were eventually put to by Philip. President
Lee was himself too occupied, as has been shown, with the Colony’s
pressing affairs to develop the Stratford farm on any large scale. If he
planned to import thoroughbreds and make Stratford a nursery of turf
horses there is no evidence of it. This interesting and constructive piece
of work he left for his eldest son to accomplish.

This was the most congenial employment Philip Lee could have un-
dertaken. Like practically all of the sons of the large planters of Tide-

[114]

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

115

w ater Virginia, Philip Lee had an engrossing interest in blooded horses,
fox hunting, and horse races. Colonel Daniel McCarty’s plantation,
Pope’s Creek, directly adjoining Stratford, was a large stock farm, one
of the most celebrated breeding establishments in Virginia. Thus at
Stratford’s very gate was an opportunity for Philip Lee and his brothers
to become minutely acquainted with the details of the scientific and
successful organization and operation of a stud farm.

Following his return from abroad and from the confines of the Inner
Temple, Philip undoubtedly joined his friends and neighbors as a
devotee of what Stanard terms as "the reigning and raging sport of
the Colony.”

In the Rappahannock Valley and across the Potomac in Maryland
w ere the stud farms of Stratford’s neighbors — some of them established
on an extensive scale — at the time Philip Lee lived at Stratford. Among
them, besides Colonel McCarty’s, were the stud farms of Colonel Mor-
ton at Leedstown, of Colonel Tayloe at Mount Airy, and Colonel Fitz-
hugh of Chatham at Fredericksburg. There were other celebrated
breeders of thoroughbreds at the plantations of the Lees’ relatives and
connections on the York and James Rivers: Colonel Nelson at York-
towm, Colonel Wormeley of Rosegill, Colonel Harrison of Brandon,
the Carters of Corotoman, Nominy, and Shirley. The frequent races in
Fredericksburg and Williamsburg stimulated further interest and ex-
citement in this sport.

Young Fithian, the Princeton tutor of the Carter family at Nominy,
wras disgusted with it. Says he in his journal:

. . . Fish-Feasts, and Fillies, Loud disputes concerning the Excellence of each
others Colts— Concerning their Fathers, Mothers (for so they call the Dams)
Brothers, Sisters, Uncles, Aunts, Nephew's, Nieces, and Cousins to the fourth
Degree! All the Evening Toddy constantly circulating. Supper came in, and
at Supper I had a full, broad, satisfying view of Miss Sally Panton. I wranted
to hear her converse, but poor Girl anything She attempted to say was drowmed
in the more polite and useful Jargon about Dogs and Horses! . . .

Fithian could even see without a quickening of pulse the great race
between Colonel Tayloe’s famous Yorick and Gift, in which Yorick
wmn — as he generally did:

Thursday. November 25. Rode this morning to Richmond [County] Court-
house. where two Horses run for a purse of 500 Pounds: besides small Betts
almost enumerable. One of the Horses belonged to Colonel John Tayloe,
and is called Yorick. The other to Dr. Flood, and is called Gift. The Assembly
was remarkably numerous; beyond my expectation and exceeding polite in
general. The Horses started precisely at five minutes after three; the Course
w'as one Mile in Circumference, they performed the first Round in two minutes.

The old stable at Stratford before reconstruction.

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

117

third in two minutes and a Half. Yorick came out the fifth time round about
40 Rod before Gift they were both, when the Riders dismounted very lame;
they run five Miles, and Carried 180 lb. Rode home in the Evening. Expence
to the Boy/7 Vi-

Philip Lee had all the makings for a stud farm at Stratford, in its
broad fields and pastures, its huge barns, stables, and paddocks. His
original stock comprised only some old field mares and colts, some
"wriding horses” perhaps — but no thoroughbreds. Philip had to use his
own resources, ingenuity, cash, and industry to establish a stud farm.

At that period the Rappahannock Valley was the center of Virginia’s
horse breeding, and the importation of horses and mares to the Colony
was limited to this section. Some years later the center was to shift to
the James River Valley, thence to Roanoke, and still later to the upper
country, Fairfax, Loudoun, Clarke, and Fauquier counties.

Philip Lee’s first notable step was to import, in the year 1765, the
famous thoroughbred stallion Dotterel, to stand at Stratford. Dotterel
was reputed by the advertisements of the day to be "the swiftest horse in
all England (Eclipse excepted).” He was foaled in 1756 and had been
bred by the great English horseman, Sir John Pennington. He "was a
high formed horse, 1 5 V2 hands high; a powerful strong boned horse...”

Philip Ludwell Lee placed the following advertisements vouching for
Dotterel over Tidewater Virginia and Maryland;

Dotterel will cover mares at Philip Ludwell Lee’s at Stratford, in Westmore-
land county this season for six pounds the season, or thirty-six shillings the
leap.

He was got by Changeling1: his dam by a son of Wynn’s Arabian: his
grandam by a son of the Lonsdale Arabian: his great great grandam by a son
of the Bay Barb, and out of the Barbon mare.

The above pedigree may be seen at Stratford in the handwriting and signed
by Sir John Pennington in England, who bred him; he beat the best horses in
England four mile heats, with twelve stone on him, a small time before he
came away for Virginia: He is near 15 hands and a half high, a healthy, strong
boned horse, and is of the sort most esteemed in Britain for a stallion, not too
far removed from the original stock. Where the horse stands there are excellent
pastures and meadows for mares. [1766, June 6, VG]

For ten years Dotterel stood at Stratford. The Stratford farm took its
place side by side with the Pope’s Creek and Leedstown studs in the
introduction of English thoroughbreds into Westmoreland and other
counties of the Northern Neck. Although Stratford never was as large
or conspicuous as some of the other stud farms of this region, it had an

lJ. Pennington’s Changeling was as famous a horse as any in the world in every respect.
[Changeling was a full brother to Matchem. by Cade out of a Partner mare: Cade being a son
of the Godolphin.] The Equine F. F. Vs. P. 118.

118

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

important local part in helping to bring in and sustain English traditions
of the turf. Stratford, with Dotterel, who carried twelve stone in Eng-
land, may perhaps have seen some good races now and then. Echoes of
Virginia’s exciting races of the eighteenth century have come down the
years. The planters of Virginia and Maryland were expert riders. As
Stanard says in Colonial Virginia, this "perhaps accounts for the charm
they found in racing, which they regarded as peculiarly a gentleman’s
diversion. ...”

Lossing’s hearsay statement that at Stratford there were "stalls for a
hundred horses,” might not be taken as an exaggeration, did he not at
the same time declare that Stratford Hall itself was a house with "a
hundred rooms.”

The stud farm at Stratford was a success from the start. With Philip
Lee’s death the stud was abolished. His cherished Dotterel was put up
for sale a few weeks later:

For sale, the high blooded horse Dotterel. He is full 15 hands 3 inches high,
and remarkable for the strength and beauty of his form, being in every respect
worthy of his high descent, which is from the best stock in England. . . . The
gentlemen of the turf are well acquainted with Dotterel’s performances in
Great Britain, and that he was esteemed the swiftest horse in England (Eclipse
excepted) . . . [His] pedigree may be seen, and the terms of sale made
known to any person inclined to purchase by applying to the steward at Strat-
ford, the seat of the late Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq; in Westmoreland
County. [1775, March 25, VG]

An abstract from the 1775 inventory of Philip Lee gives the exact ap-
praisal by the administrators of his estate of "such horses Mares and
Colts as were shown to us:”

Dotterel Stud Horse

£100

Peg & her filly

£ 11

Lilliput Chesnut horse

£ 10

Bolton bay horse

£ 1

Jack Sorrel horse

£ 4

Stockings Sorrel horse

£ 15

Blossom Sorrel Mare

£ 25

Silver Sorrel Mare & filly

£ 20

Fancy Sorrel Mare & filly

£ 20

Whitefoot Bay horse

£ 25

Sterling Bay horse

£ 15

Creeping Kate

£ 20

Jenny Bowles bay mare

£ 20

Bay filly 3 years old

£ 12

Grey mare

£ 10

Phillis & grey filly

£ 8

Grey filly 2 years old

£ 8

■

—

DOTTERREL

Bred in England by Sir John Pennington

Brought to United States by P. N. Lee of Virginia i

1 1765 <

r earlii

r .

Stood in Westmorland County, Virginia, in 1766.

Dam PEDIGREE Sire

Pedigree of Dotterel.

120

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Descriptions of the various types of the eighteenth century coaches
of the Stratford Lees are available in several unpublished documents.
The specifications for Hannah Lee Corbin’s coach ordered for her in
London in 1768 by her brother William (through George Richard
Turberville, Hannah’s son-indaw) , give a graphic picture of the fashion-
able equipage of that period:2

James Russel Esq.r For Mr Turbeville
To x Poole & Ringsted

1768
Octo 8
Mr Russells
original agreeing
was for a
CompL- chariot
with Harness
for four Horses

£90.—

by order
of Mr Wm.
Lee

To A new Genteel Post Chariot Made of the
best Materials, Neatly Carved, with all Manner
of the best Brass Leather & Iron Work, Four
Steel Springs Iron Axletrees & Strong Sett of
Wheels, Painted a fine Green Ground, with Coat
of Arms & Crest proper with handsome Orna-
ments in Green heightened in Gold the Mould-
ings & Edges Gilt, the Carriage & Wheels —
Coloured & Varnished, Lined with a fine light
Cloth with all Manner of the best Worsted
Trimming same Colour, Handsome Seat Cloth
made up w<T. 2 Rows of Frings, the best Plate
Glasses 2 in front, Mohogany Shutters, Inside

Trunk and Carpet to the bottom

To 4 new Genteel Harness made of the best
Neats Leather Engraven Crest Housings &
Winkers Bridles & reins Compleat & 2 Postilion
Saddles; A Large Deal Case and Packs up the
Body, Matts & Packing up the Carriage &

Wheels, Marked as pr Margin

To Anew Pair of Postilion Harness Made of the
best Neats Leather, Engraven Crest and Hous-
ings & Winkers Bridle & reins Compleat

To Anew Sett of Barrs Spare Barr & Splintree. .
To 6 Postilion Whips & new Pair Horse Whip.

To 2 long Thongs

To A Nett to the Roof

To Cartage & Porterage & Watermen

90- -

- -7-10-
1-16-
18-
5-
7

£ 101- 6-

Contrasted with Hannah’s simplicity of taste, her daily life, and her
avowed intent not to be "of the rich and the great,” it would appear that

2The original order for this coach was preserved by Hannah’s descendants (through Martha),
Miss Alary Lee Murphy, and Air. R. Stafford Murphy, of Westmoreland. The interesting docu-
ment wras given by them to the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation.

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Lee for his sister, Hannah Lee Corbin.

122

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

the grand post-chariot was more frequently used perhaps by Martha
Corbin Turberville, her daughter, rather than by Hannah.

Another description of an even more lordly eighteenth century coach
"in prospect” for a member of the Lee family connected with Stratford,
is in an original autographed letter written by Tom Shippen to his sister
Nancy (Mrs. Henry Beekman Livingston). The observant young "ex-
quisite” grandson and namesake of Thomas Lee, is at his country home,
Farley in Pennsylvania, making ready for one of his customary visits to
Virginia:

I gave Mr. B[ringhurst] [the Coach Maker] my directions yesterday, he
writes, "as to the color of the painting as well as the lining and trimmings,
tho’ perhaps you might as well give them to him in writing for fear of a
mistake. The body of the Carriage is to be of a dark London brown, gilt, with
my cypher T.L.S. and a Raven holding an oak leaf (our crest) over it. The
carriage part is to be painted nearly white picked out (as they call it) with
green, to correspond with my livery — The lining is to be of a cloth at 30/ a
yard pepper & salt colour and the trimmings green and white lace — The stuff-
ing to be made every where of the best curled hair, and the cushions both of
the seats and quarters remarkably well stuffed so as to be soft and comfortable
to an Invalid. Glasses behind, before and at the doors and false blinds to repre-
sent Venetian ones in the painting of them, where ever the glasses are and be-
sides that, in the quarters — to be made to close up m the winter with the
cushions. The carriage moreover must be hung low to accommodate me in
getting in, and the steps of the best kind, large and covered with carpeting like
that in the bottom of the carriage. Holders behind for the footman of green &
white lace. These particulars you can copy upon another piece of paper and
keep this note, to compare notes by, when the work is finished.

As to the harness, you will have an opportunity to exercise your address
there. If you find that he will not remember your particular orders about brass
harness for 2 horses which you seem to think you gave him, and which there-
fore I should think it so short a time you could hardly be mistaken about —
urge him then for the sake of his reputation which will be greatly affected in
the distant Countries (N. & S. Carolina and Georgia in particular) I am going
to travel through, by this specimen of his skill, to lay out the worth of the
harness in making ye Carriage in any respect more elegant — more durable, or
less burdensome — In short get the harness if you can, for the pole end horses
instead of those you expected for the 400 Drs. exclusive of the additional
Coachman’s seat which I have ordered, and if not as much as possible in lieu
of it — And as to the rest, I repose the utmost confidence in your vigilance your
attention, your taste and your devotion to my interests. Give my love to Peggy
and to everybody over the way, and believe me ever yours most affectionately.

William Lee’s sister-in-law, Lucy Ludwell Paradise, brought her
London carriage with her when she returned to America in the last

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

123

decade of the eighteenth century to spend her declining years in Wil-
liamsburg. This is one of the quaintest chariots imaginable: black and
yellow, with silver trimmings and high folding steps. The knobs of the
door are ornamented with silver bas-reliefs of horses’ heads of skillful
craftsmanship.3

Of the vehicles in the coach house at Stratford during the middle or
late eighteenth century, no description is available. The inventories of
the first two masters of Stratford contain meagre and probably incom-
plete references. Among the carriages mentioned in Philip Lee’s in
ventory are:

small Chaise

1000/

Landay

300/

Charriott

600/

Carts & I Tumbrel

200/

Cart

30/

When he attended the meetings of the Council, President Lee prob-
ably rode horseback to Williamsburg just as he had done as a Burgess.
On occasions when his family accompanied him, they must have traveled
in a coach and six.

For Philip Lee, however, especially after his marriage, there would
inevitably have been high display and as "lordly” a coach perhaps as
the one in which rode King Carter of Corotoman. During Philip’s time
the county roads from the Northern Neck to the little capital citv were
probably more passable than in his father’s day.

In the fifteen or twenty years before the Revolution, according to
Fithian, "Almost every Gentleman of Condition, keeps a Chariot and
Four: many drive with six Plorses.” In the Northern Neck there were
some grand equipages, such as Hannah Corbin’s and those belonging to
the other wealthy neighboring families, among them Fitzhugh, Mc-
Carty, Ashton, Tayloe, and Carter. Two of King Carter’s sons, Landon
and Robert, lived in the vicinity of Stratford, the first at Sabine Hall, and
the second at Nominy. They had elegant family vehicles. Fithian tells
of the arrival at Nominy of "our new coach . . . from the ship lying at
Leeds: a plain carriage, the upper part black and the lower sage or pea
green. The Harness is neat strong, and Suitable for the Country. Price
one hundred and twenty pounds sterling.” Councillor Carter had also a
"strong, fashionable, travelling post coach, lined with blue morocco,”

"This coach is owned by Mr. and Airs. Victor Stewart of Chippokes, Surry County, the
ancient Berkeley Plantation on the Surry side of the James, which passed into Ludwell owner-
ship, and so to Lucy Paradise. The rare and picturesque old equipage was purchased with the
plantation by Air. and Airs. Stewart some twenty years ago.

124

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

a "chariot with six wheels,” and a chair. His coachman and postilions
wore livery of blue broadcloth with brass buttons.

The only actual mention of carriages and coaches at Stratford refers
to the second period of Light-Horse Harry Lee’s life there from 1795 to
1810. In an unpublished manuscript, Charles Carter Lee, the son ot
Light-Horse Harry and Ann Carter, describes the life at Stratford dur-
ing the last decade of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the
nineteenth.4 In this narrative are frequent references to coaches and to
horses, although there came a time in that family’s fortunes when they
were to have neither.

Charles Carter Lee’s statements and descriptions of Stratford in these
unknown, long buried papers, reveal intimate and interesting scenes and
happenings in the family and on the place. Carter writes:

. . . Our domestic pleasures were diversified by the visits ... of our near
neighbors, & of our distant ones, chiefly the Carters, in their coaches & four.
I have a faint recollection that Mr Carter of Cleve & his family came to Strat-
ford, in those sweet days, in two coaches & fours, the old gentleman presiding
in one of those vehicles & his honoured & beloved wife in another. . . . The
dear old gentleman, Mr Carter of Nomini, came in the same style, I think. . . .

When the family rode abroad during his childhood they drove in a
coach-and-four. Carter mentions specifically the time when he was four
years old and went with his parents in their "coach & four,” when they
made a "Northern tour.” He also speaks of seeing the coach horses let
down in the hold of the vessel:

This incident was calculated to make an impression on a child, who had
never even dreamed of such a performance. That much is distinct, & as such
it is still photographed on the tablets of my memory: & I am pretty certain,
that this was done at Providence, Rhode Island, from which place we sailed,
instead of travelling, as before, on land, to some point, which I have not the
least recollection of arriving at. For having doubtless been carried [inde-
cipherable word crossed out] from the vessel before the horses were taken out
of it, I have no recollection of that impressive event.

More than two generations later, the year after the War Between the
States, Stratford was the scene of the Westmoreland County Tourna-
ment. Descendants of the friends and neighbors of the Stratford Lees
gathered there for the first time in many years. Expert young horsemen
of the Northern Neck came on their favorite mounts to take part in the
contest in which the "Knight” who was the victor would crown "the
Queen of Love and Beauty.” The spacious meadows of the south ap-

4Photostat collection. Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation.

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

125

proach to the Great House was the field of the tournament and the cere-
mony of the crowning of the Queen took place in the Great Hall.

Virginia was settled from the water, and only gradually were the in-
land sections put under cultivation. Until the middle of the eighteenth
century virtually every plantation had to be reached through its water-
front. So it was at Stratford. Here were the "warff” or Landing, the
Plantation Store and Store Houses, the Tobacco Warehouses, Shipyard,
Stocks, the Mills and the Cooper’s Shop. The county people for miles
around sent their tobacco for shipment when a public warehouse was
established there during the period of Philip Lee. They came not only
to send out their tobacco, but also to buy their stores and receive their
cargoes, to see the ships from England riding in, and to get the captains’
news.

In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the Stratford waterfront
was a center of public and private business and of local industrial activ-
itv, first for the Pope family and their neighbors and then for the Lees
and theirs. Like all the planters’ landings, it was perhaps more impor-
tant as a center for the gathering and dispersing of news, foreign and do-
mestic, than were the two churches of Westmoreland.

The strategic position of Stratford as a central point for shipping and
mill operation for the county must have appealed to Thomas Lee, even
before his purchase of the plantation.

Of the waters of this section Robert Beverley savs:

THE Largeness of the Bay of Chesapeak I have mention’d already. From
one End of it to the other, there’s good Anchorage, and so little Danger of a
Wreck, that many Masters, who have never been there before, venture up to
the Head of the Bay, upon the slender Knowledge of a common Sailor. But
the Experience of one Voyage teaches any Master to go up afterwards, without
a Pilot.

Besides this Bay, the Country is water’d with four great Rivers, viz. James,
York. Rappahannock, and Patoinneck Rivers; all which are full of convenient
and safe Harbours. There are also abundances of lesser Rivers, many of which
are capable of receiving the biggest Merchant-Ships . .

These Rivers are of such Convenience, that, for almost every half dozen
Miles of their Extent, there’s a commodious and safe Road for a whole Fleet;
which gives Opportunity to the Masters of Ships, to lye up and down straggling,
according as they have made their Acquaintance, riding before that Gentleman’s
Door where they find the best Reception, or where ’tis most suitable to their
Business.

These Rivers are made up, by the Conflux of an infinite Number of chrystal

126

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Springs of cool and pleasant Water, issuing every where out of the Banks, and
Sides of the Valleys. These Springs flow so plentifully, that they make the River
Water fresh, fifty, threescore, and sometimes an hundred Miles below the
Flux and Reflux of the Tides; and sometime within thirty or forty Miles of the
Bay itself. The Conveniencies of these Springs are so many, they are not to be
number’d: I shall therefore content my self to mention that one of supplying the
Country else where, except in the low Lands, with as many Mills as they can
find Work for: And some of these send forth such a Glut of Water, that in less
than a Mile below the Fountain-head, they afford a Stream sufficient to supply
a Grist-Mill; of which there are several Instances.

In John Oldmixon’s T he British Empire in America, of approximately
the same period, when developments were beginning at Stratford, is a
somewhat similar reference.

Other goods besides tobacco transported by the colonists from the old
river landings included wood, lumber, indigo, and naval stores. From
England, as Beverley ruefully declares:

THEY have their Clothing of all sorts ... as Linen, Woollen, Silk, Hats, and
Leather: Yet Flax, and Hemp grow no where in the World better than there.
There Sheep yield good Increase, and bear good Fleeces; but they shear them
only to cool them. The Mulberry-Tree, whose Leaf is the proper Food of the
Silk-Worm, grows there like a Weed, and Silk-worms have been observ’d to
thrive extremely, and without any Hazard. The very Furs that their Hats are
made of , perhaps go first from thence; and most of their Hides lie and rot, or are
made use of only for covering dry Goods, in a leaky House. Indeed some few
Hides with much ado are tan’d, and made into Servants Shoes; but at so careless
a Rate, that the Planters don’t care to buy them, if they can get others; and
sometimes perhaps a better Manager than ordinary, will vouchsafe to make a
pair of Breeches of a Deer-Skin. Nay, they are such abominable Ill-husbands,
that tho’ their Country be over-run with Wood, yet they have all their Wooden
Ware from England; their Cabinets, Chairs, Tables, Stools, Chests, Boxes,
Cart-Wheels, and all other things, even so much as their Bowls, and Birchen
Brooms, to the Eternal Reproach of their Laziness.

From the earliest davs there was coastwise and West India trade at
Potomac landings, as well as trade with England — a circumstance that
brought about an interesting connection and frequent intermarriage be-
tween the families of New England, Bermuda, and West Indian sea
captains, and early Virginia planters.

The old landings themselves indeed reach out from the shores of yesterdays
. . . Looked at through the eyes of history focused on the old chronicles, the
colonial records, the parish vestry books, the old statutes and wills and diaries
and letters, the vivid features of the early days assert themselves; the canoes
of the Indians dart again along the river; the shallops of John Smith and the
other adventurers sail its course; the pinnaces of Lord Baltimore search its
shores and find a haven; the square-rigged clippers from England bring luxuries

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERERONT

127

and dainties to the planters and their dames; the landings bend and creak or
straighten and steady under the tobacco cargoes; the plantations renew the
life of plenty and ease and splendour."'

In common with all other plantation landings in Virginia, Stratford
waterfront shared a view into far horizons, had more or less touch
with world events. With the passing of the seventeenth century, the
shadow of the fierce conflict between England and France reached over
the waters. Though the colonists had no part in the making of that war,
nor in the succeeding European wars of the early eighteenth century,
they were drawn into the vortex. The menace from Indian attack also
made for constant tension. Forts and block houses were being built in
various parts of the Colony; rangers were placed on guard far up the
Potomac, on the Rappahannock, the York, and the James. War news
came first through the waterfront.

Over a decade later, when Thomas Lee finished building Stratford
house and brought his family there to live, the waterfront must have
been a mine of interest to the Lee boys and no doubt inspired their
ardent and zealous concern in world affairs. Here worked their father’s
and their brother Philip’s boatswain and ship carpenters: Osman, Phil,
Frank, Edmund, Congo the brick layer, "Bab at the Mill” and Harry,
his "carp[enter] Fidlr [Fiddler.]” Undoubtedly the negro West also
worked here. These names of the Lees’ slaves are in the old inventories.
West’s family never left the place, and his descendants live and work at
Stratford today.

During the 1730’s and 1740’s the Lee boys perhaps had exciting ex-
periences with the mysterious foreign coins. With Virginia’s medium of
exchange tobacco — tobacco only — matters of "finance” must have been
prosaic. But when the ships came riding in, with their strange cargoes,
in the pockets of the sailors were Spanish double doubloons, pistoles,
Arabian chequins, French crowns and pieces of eight. Then, too, there
were sea-faring men from many lands. Face to face the young Lees
would meet men who sailed the Spanish Main, not legendary figures,
but men of flesh and blood, who transformed their landing into a scene
of adventure and romance.

. the Soanish sailors with bearded lips,

And the beauty and mystery of the ships,

And the magic of the sea. .

Among the merchant ships riding Potomac waters in the earlv
eighteenth century were the Lee, the Chatham, the Frederick, the Pris-
cilla, the Charles, the America, the Sea Horse, and Friend's Adventure.

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A typical Virginia landing of the eighteenth century, showing corner of tobacco warehouse
and other waterfront structures.

There were sea craft, too, from dark waters. Of the raids of the pirate
"Long Arm,” especially, are innumerable tales and traditions. But he
passed by Stratford in the night, bringing neither murderous attack nor
treasure to bury.

In the Public Record Office, London, are many inventories of con-
signments of furniture and other household goods shipped in the early
1700’s to "the south side of Potomac” at the time when Richard Lee and
Thomas Lee were naval officers there. A ship’s manifest which left
Plymouth for the Potomac River carried brocatelles, brocades, lacquers,
etc., and the returned bill of lading bore the signature of Thomas Lee.
His signature as naval officer is also preserved on some of the records of
consignments exported from Virginia.

A typical planter’s bill of lading is this bill for merchandise shipped
from London on a clipper ship Potomac-bound:

Shipped by the Grace of God, in good order and well conditioned by Wil-
liam Lee in and upon the good ship called the Friendship, whereof is Master
unto God for the present Voyage, William Roman, and now riding at Anchor
in the river Thames and by God’s Grace bound for Virginia, to say one case,
One Trunk, one Box of Merchandise, being marked and numbered as in the
margin and are to be delivered in like good order and well conditioned at the
aforesaid Port of Virginia (the danger of the sea only excepted) unto Mrs.

[128]

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

129

Anna Washington at Pope’s Creek, Potomak River or to her assigns. Freight
for the said goods being paid with Primage and Average accustomed.0

The archives of Westmoreland Courthouse are packed with old sea-
faring records, quite as if it were a maritime region. They deal with the
making of tobacco at the Clifts and elsewhere and its inspection and
shipment at Stratford and other Potomac landings; with the building of
wharves, boats, and warehouses; with the names of ships and ship cap-
tains; with the adjustments of weights and scales. An occasional notice
is found of a thief making away with sailcloth from the store and his
punishment therefor. The kinds and varieties of goods brought from
England are also listed. Records of supplies shipped on vessels and
money advanced for needed repairs are noted. Abstracts from account-
ings of the estates of the planters of the Northern Neck contain further
items. From this cumulative data, definite and concrete, the life and
activities of the Stratford waterfront may be reconstructed.

In the year "1736/7,” March 12, comes this expression of gratitude to
Thomas Lee, Esquire, at Virginia, from Weymouth, England: "I am
very thankfull to you for Supplying Capt. John Brett with £100 to repair
his vessel &c. and have honour^ his bill for the same. Should said Capt.
want one hundred pounds more in Virginia this voyage, or any part of
that Sum his Bill on me for the Same Shall all so be Punctually hon-
oured. If I can render you any agreeable Service here should be glad to
have the Pleasure of doing it, and on all occasions shall be most readily
— Sr. yr. most Humble Servant, Thos. Bryer.”

The Westmoreland Courthouse records for March and July, 1743,
contain the first mention of Lee’s Landing, and refer to the mill and "an
old Mill dam near the said Lee’s Landing.” From the period when
Thomas Lee’s son Philip became owner of Stratford, extending from
1750 to 1775, there are many records about Stratford Landing, ware-
houses, ships, etc., not only in the Westmoreland books, but also in
Hening’s Laws of Virginia and in the Journals of the House of Bur-
gesses.

Significant developments occurred at Stratford in the year 1759, when
Lee’s Landing passed from the more or less private service of the owner,
his tenants, and small planters of the neighborhood to public service for
the entire peninsula. In this year a bill to construct a public warehouse at
Stratford Landing was prepared by Archibald Cary, Richard Henry Lee,
and Henry Lee, cousin and guardian of the Stratford Lees, and intro-
duced by them in the House of Burgesses. The text of the act as given

130

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

in Hening’s Laws of Virginia is typical of the grandiloquence of the
times:

At a General Assembly, began and held at the Capitol in Williamsburg, on
Thursday the fourteenth day of September, in the thirty-second year of the
reign of our sovereign lord George II, by the grace of God, of Great-Britain,
France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith &etc., and in the year of our
Lord, 1758; and from thence continued bv several prorogations to Thursday
the twenty-second of February, in the year of our Lord, 1759; being the third
session of this assembly; the following Act was passed:

An Act for putting Matchotique and Mattox Warehouses, in the county of
Westmoreland, under one inspection; for erecting a Warehouse at Stratford
Landing, in the said county, and for other purposes therein mentioned.

I. WHEREAS the warehouses established for the inspection of tobacco at
Matchotique and Mattox, in the county of Westmoreland, are conveniently
situated for being under one inspection, and the tobacco brought to both places
may easily be inspected by one set of inspectors: Be it therefore enacted , by the
Lieutenant-Governor, Council, and Burgesses, of this present General Assembly ,
and it is hereby enacted, by the authority of the same, That from and after the
passing of this act the said warehouses at Matchotique and Mattox shall be
under one inspection; and that there shall be paid to each of the inspectors at-
tending the same the sum of thirty pounds per annum for their salaries.

II. And whereas it will be of great advantage to many of the inhabitants of
the said county if warehouses for the inspection of tobacco were erected on the
land of the honourable Phillip Ludwell Lee, esquire, at a place called Stratford
landing, in the said county: Be it further enacted, by the authrity aforesaid,.
That from and after the passing of this act public warehouses for the inspection
of tobacco shall be kept on the land of the said Philip Ludwell Lee, esquire, at
the place called Stratford landing, in the said county of Westmoreland; and
that there shall be paid to each of the inspectors attending the same the sum
of twenty-five pounds per annum for their salaries.

III. And whereas much of the tobacco that used to be carried to Nominy
warehouses, in the said county of Westmoreland, will be probably carried to
the warehouses to be erected at Stratford landing, and the business of the in-
spectors at Nominy much lessened, thereby: Be it further enacted, by the au-
thority aforesaid, That from and after the passing of this act the salaries of the
inspectors at Nominy warehouses shall be only thirty pounds per annum
each. . .

The Court Orders of the Westmoreland County Records of Novem-
ber 27, 1759, also contain references to Stratford Landing:

Motion of Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. ordered that John Martin, Lawrence
Butler and Benjamin Weeks Gents, view the Place proposed by sd. Lee to
Erect and Build a warff at Stratford Landing Warehouse and make report.

Motion of Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. ordered that he do keep the two roads
from his upper and Lower Gates to Stratford Warehouse in Lawfull repair

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATER ERONT

131

and the sd. Lee is Exempted from clearing any roads in Washington Parish
Whatsoever. . .

Motion of Phillip Ludwell Lee, Esq. at Nov. Court last, It was ordered that
Jno. Martin, Lawrence Butler and Benj. Weeks, Gents, do view the Place pro-
posed by the sd. Lee to Erect a Warff at Stratford Warehouse and report &c. —
Who now return their report, to wit — Nov. 28, 1759— In Obedience to an
order of Court we the subscribers have viewed a place proposed for the Build-
ing of a Warff at Stratford Warehouse find it between two and three feet
Water near ninety yards out and about four foot one Hundred yards hard
Bottom — Lawrence Butler, John Martin. Whereupon it is considered bv the
Court that there be a Warff Erected agreeable thereto.

Ordered that Richard Lee and Aug. Washington Gents, view the Ware-
houses at Nominy and Stratford Landing.

On January 26, 1762 was given The Order for appointing persons to agree
with Workmen to build a Wharf at Stratford Landing for Reasons appearing
to the Court is discharged and it is ordered that Benjamen Weeks, John Martin
and Thos. Chilton, Jr. Gents, do perform the Same and make Report to the
Court.

In 1763, Edward Sanford and Richard Muse Inspectors at Stratford Land-
ing Warehouse pursuant to Law made oath to an acct. of outstanding Transfer
Receipts for Tob[acco], amounting to 1246 pounds.

Thus for a period of several years Stratford Landing had a certain
precedence over other Potomac landings and must have been as busy a
'mart of trade” in a local or county way as any in the Colony. The ex-
tent of its commerce was hardly comparable to that of the Virginia vil-
lages which were fast growing into towns: Williamsburg, Norfolk,
Fredericksburg, Richmond, or Alexandria; but it gave needed service to
the planters and small farmers of Westmoreland.

During these years there was also considerable activity at the Strat-
ford mills, to judge from the references for payment for millwork in
the Philip Lee inventories. The incident from the Court Orders refer-
ring to a negro slave’s breaking into the Stratford store is dated August
13, 1763: "Tom Limerick, a negro man Slave belonging to the Honble
Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. with force and arms &c. feloniously broke and
entered a house belonging to the sd. Lee and then and there did steal
take and carry away pieces of Spanish Silver of the value of 5s, and also
the same day and year did steal take and carry away from the store
of the sd. Lee a piece of Sail cloth, 3s, and one Tressure note value of
Is. Opinion of the Court that sd. Tom Limerick is guilty, therefore it
is considered by the Court that the sd. Tom. Limerick be burnt in the
left hand, which being done in the presence of the Court he is dis-
charged from his Imprisonment.”

The site of Stratford Landing.

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT 133

During this period a few boats were evidently built at Stratford
Landing. The boats and fishing equipment mentioned in Philip Lee’s

inventory for 1776 are:

1 boat £ 15

1 pr. Chain Wheels 25/

1 Vessel on the Stocks £ 250

One Boat at the Shop Yard £ 25

387 yds. Sail Cloth £ 50

1 Bestle & Maul 5/

1 Old Sein & Ropes 80/

However, ship building on any considerable scale did not exist in
eighteenth century Virginia.

In 1769, about ten years after they were built, the warehouses at
Stratford Landing were destroyed, presumably by fire. The following
year efforts were made to reestablish them, but opposition developed
among a group of freeholders and merchants of Westmoreland. Philip
Lee was not a popular figure in his county or in Williamsburg, and the
petition for the rebuilding of the warehouses proved unsuccessful.

Perhaps the brightest and most picturesque aspect of Stratford water-
front were the family boats, the visiting to and fro between the plan-
tations on those favorite roads of the old planters, the river ways. No
description of the Lee boats has survived, but Fithian tells about some
belonging to their neighbors.

Such wealthy planters as the Carters on the Rapahannock had family boats
with four and six oars and awnings. The customs officials at all the large ports
had rowboats and barges. Some of these craft were handsomely painted, and at
New York, for example, carried sails, awnings, a coxswain, and bargemen in
livery.

Again on Monday, December 13, he continues:

Mr. Carter is preparing for a Voyage in his Schooner, the Hariot, to the
Eastern Shore in Maryland, for Oysters: there are of the party, Mr. Carter,
Captain Walker Colonel R'ichd. Lee and Mr. Lancelot Lee. With Sailors to
work the vessel. . . . The long-Boat came, well furnished with a large Awning,
and rowed with four Oars. . . .

Before the Revolution and for several years following, dances were
given at Stratford Landing. One or two old barges were moored fast
to the wharf and lighted with ships’ lanterns. Philip Lee’s band of
negro musicians played for the dancers. This is one of the reminiscences
of Charles Carter Lee — one of the Stratford customs described to him
by his father —

This is the Potomac of the landings — of the old wharves supported by the
leaning piles and protected at their corners by the high cable-lashed clusters of

134

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

stout oak; of matchless romance and history; of the adventurers and planters;
of the clipper ships from England and the Spanish Main, the frigates of war
times, and the schooners and sloops and gilling skiffs; of the long stretches of
leisurely peace over an almost unbroken span of three hundred years. . . . The
landings are frequent, and the way to their pilings leads up many a meandering
creek.7

From Stratford Landing the onlooker saw history being made. In the
spring of 1744 the members of the Lancaster Commission gathered there
— as gallant a company of Virginians as the "Knights of the Golden
Horseshoe” who, not so many years before, had set forth from Wil-
liamsburg under the leadership of Governor Alexander Spotswood and
had penetrated the veils of mist beyond the distant hills and discovered
the Blue Ridge Mountains. The expedition from Stratford, under the
leadership of Thomas Lee — of even greater historic import and wider
horizons — secured for England and English settlement the lands of the
Iroquois west of the Alleghenies.

The Treaty of Lancaster has already been referred to. Its relevance
to Stratford Landing is that here was the point of embarkation. A daily
record of the interesting events was kept by the secretary of the Virginia
Commission, William Black of Montross, Scotland, a recent graduate
of the University of Aberdeen. He gives a vivid picture of that morning
of May 17, when the voyagers set sail:

This Morning at 9 of the Clock, in Company with the Hon'ble Commis-
sioners, and the Gentlemen of their Levies, Colonel John Taylor [Tayloe],
Jun’r, Presley Thornton, Warren Lewis, Philip Ludwell Lee, James Littlepage,
and Robert Brooke, Esquire, I Embarked on Board the Margaret Yacht lying
off Stratford on Potomac, and about 10 minutes after, was under sail with a
small Breeze of Wind at S. W. One Jack Ensign and Pennon flying. After
the Vessel had got way, with the Trumpet we hailed the Company (who came
to the Water-side to see us on Board) with Fare-you-well, who returned the
Complement, wishing us a Good Voyage and safe Return, for which, on the
part of the Company, I gave them Thanks with the discharge of our Blunder-
buss.

As farr as I could observe the Gentlemen and Ladies on the Sandy Bank,
we had full Sails, but on loosing the Sight of them, or on their retiring, we lost
our Wind, which made me conclude, the Gentle Gale we then had was nothing
else but the tender Wishes of the Women for their Husbands, and the Af-
fectionate Concern of the Mothers for their Sons, Breath’d after us in Gentle
Sighs.

With mid-century, there came a time when the family at Stratford
and the neighbors for miles around must have gathered together at Strat-

Quotations 5. 6, 7 in this chapter are from Potomac Landings, by Paul Wilstach. Copyright
1932. Used by special permission of the publishers. The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

THE PLANTATION AND THE WATERFRONT

135

ford Landing. That was a day in March, 1755, when the brave sight of
Braddock’s Army sailing up the river from Hampton stirred the hearts
of the Virginians. The British ships and transports- — pennons, flags,
and Jack ensigns flying— rode the broad waters. On deck were the
proud general and his two regiments from Ireland in their scarlet uni-
forms, his artillerymen, and "handy marines.” They were to disembark
at Alexandria for the long trek into the Pennsylvania wilderness. But
only four months later the gaily welcomed troopers drifted back past
Stratford Landing, flags at halfmast, only the wraith of a regiment.
After the massacre at Fort Duquesne they had left their dead — fully
two-thirds of their number — buried with their general in the primeval
forest beside the Monongahela.

More than a generation afterwards, in the last years of the American
Revolution, Richard Henry Lee wrote repeatedly to the Governor of
Virginia and to the Commissioner of the War Office at Richmond for
arms and equipment, "the necessary defences which can alone secure
both public and treasure.” In a letter to the Governor written at Chan-
tilly he said: "Since my arrival from Congress in 1779 I have used every
possible means to get the militia of Westmoreland well armed, as the
people were exposed for 40 miles along the Shores of Potomac to be
plundered & injured by the small piratical vessels of the enemv & of
the Tories.”8

On the ninth of April, 1781, Stratford Landing was the scene of an
engagement between the crews of three British men-of-war and a com-
pany of Westmoreland militia assembled and captained by Richard
Henry Lee. In the skirmish Lee was injured through the falling of his
horse. The description of this historic incident of the Revolution in
Virginia, written by Light-Horse Harry Lee’s eldest son, Major Henry
Lee,'1 has a quality reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott:

During the war of the revolution, and, I believe, while Mr. Jefferson was
Governor of Virginia, a British squadron which had been scouring the waters
and wasting the shores of the Chesapeake, taking advantage of a favourable
breeze, suddenly came to, off the coast of Virginia, where the majestic cliffs of
Westmoreland overlook the stormy and sea-like Potomac. Mr. [Richard Henry]
Lee was at that time on one of those visits to his family with which, from the
permanent sittings of Congress, the members were of necessity occasionally
accommodated. He hastily collected from the nearest circle of his neighbours a
small and ill-armed band, repaired at their head to the point on which the enemy
had commenced a descent, and without regard to his inferiority of means and

'From Lee Papers, Pennsylvania Historical Society. Letter not collated with original.
"Observations of the Writings of Thomas Jefferson.

136

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

numbers, instantly attacked them. He drove the party on shore back into their
barges, and held them aloof, until the ships were brought to cover the landing
with round shot and shells, which he had no means of returning. Then as he
was the first in advance so he was the last to retire, as men who were with
him have since his death often said. Several of the hostile party were killed or
wounded, among them an officer whom they carried off. One man they buried
on the shore. In a grove of aged beech trees, not far from Mr. Lee’s residence,
rest the remains of this unknown but unforgotten foe. The belated homeward-
going hunter, as he drags his tired steps along that proud and melancholy
coast, hastens to pass this grave without a name. His comrade is awed into
silence, his hounds with startled instinct follow close at his heels, he hears a
deeper moan in the night wind, a more sullen murmur in the angry wave, and
overcome with a pleasing terror continues his quickened pace, until the course
of a limpid stream is crossed. Then he talks again with his companion; tells of
the men who when his sire was young, were the pride of Westmoreland; of
Washington’s renown in arms, of Lee’s fame for eloquence; how the first went
abroad to distant battles and high command; how the second returned from
solemn councils to his poor but hospitable hills, delighted to disperse among
his neighbours the fruits of wisdom and benevolence.

BOOK TWO

THE PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
AND ITS AFTERMATH
(1760-90)

CHAPTER VII: THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND

UNCHANGEABLE

1ATE in the month of February, 1766, according to a local chronicler,'
"Thomas Ludwell Lee is known to have sent a boy to his brother
Richard Henry Lee with a letter which read: 'We propose to be
in Leedstown2 in the afternoon of the 27th inst., where we expect to
meet those who will come from your way. It is proposed that all who
have swords or pistols will ride with them, and those who choose, a
firelock. This will be a fine opportunity to effect the scheme of an asso-
ciation, and I would be glad if you would think of a plan.’ ”

There was evidently fear of violent opposition from Tories in West-
moreland County to any meeting in protest against the Stamp Act. At
this time, and for years to come, in Virginia and in every other colony
as well, the patriots were in the minority. Everywhere, families were
divided. Loyalists were in the saddle.

The meeting at Leedstown, proposed by Thomas Ludwell Lee and
called by Richard Henry, marked the beginning of the political life
of the Stratford Lees as a family. It was the first time the four brothers
appeared publicly together to denounce measures which they held in-
imical to the Colonies. But Philip Lee, the master of Stratford, being
of the King’s Council, was a loyalist and so remained neutral. It is not
recorded that he supported his brothers in any way or affixed his signa-
ture to a single one of the important official documents which they drew
up. Nor is it on record that he opposed them — or other patriots — at any
time.

Ever since the passage of the Stamp Act, "a fatal blow to the liberty
of America,” the Stratford Lees had united with Patrick Henry and
other Virginia patriots in opposing the measure. Richard Henry wrote
to Arthur in England, July 4, 1765:

Every man in America hath much reason to lament with you, the loss of
American liberty. As bad indeed as Egyptian bondage, is now become the fate
of every inhabitant of America, by the mother country being converted into an

‘Wright, T. R. P>., Westmoreland County, J'irgima, p. 41.

"Leedstown was located on the Rappahannock several miles across the country from Strat-
ford Plantation. It was the chief trading mart for Westmoreland County through the first
three-quarters of the eighteenth century, and was one of the principal ports of the Rappahan
nock River, and the central postal station for the county. It stood on the site of an ancient
Indian settlement and. according to Bishop Meade was once a place of note in this part of
Virginia: "It was doubtless named, either by the Fairfaxes or Washingtons, after the town of
Leeds, in Yorkshire, near which both of their ancestral families lived. This in Virginia was
a place of much trade in tobacco and other things. Its shipping was very considerable. ... At
this place did they [the patriots of Westmorelandl resolve to oppose the Stamp Act, nor allow
any citizen of Westmoreland to deal in stamps. This is a true part of the American history.”

[139]

140 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

arbitrary, cruel, and oppressive step-dame. But this most unjust proceeding
[the stamp act] against us, should instruct every American, that as liberty can
never be supported without arts and learning, a diligent attention to those
should be the ruling object, with every thinking man.3

In the fall of 1765, the Stamp Act Congress, initiated by Benjamin
Franklin, James Otis, Patrick Henry, and Christopher Gadsden, set in
motion the concerted protest that spread throughout Virginia and other
colonies. Thomas Ludwell Lee’s call for the Leedstown meeting was
sent abroad through the county by Richard Henry. Their cousin and
former guardian, Henry Lee of Leesylvania, and his brother Richard,
"Squire” Lee of Lee Hall, joined them in the protest which Richard
Henry framed. The call was answered, in person, by more than one
hundred citizens of the county. They came armed.

Bray’s Church, a brick structure on the outskirts of the town, high
on the bank of the river, was the meeting-place. The Westmoreland
patriots bound themselves in this meeting to defend each other with
their lives and fortunes in the execution of the resolves drawn up by
Richard Henry Lee. These resolutions stated, in effect:

First: That allegiance to the sovereign and obedience to the law,
would be rendered only in so far as was consistent with the preservation
of constitutional rights and liberty:

Second: That trial by jury and taxation by representatives of the tax-
payers’ choice were fundamental rights, the denial of which they as sub-
scribers would go to any extremity "'to stigmatize and punish”:

Third: That every faculty would be exerted to prevent the execution
of the Stamp Act in Virginia. The "abandoned wretch” who abetted
the Act was pronounced in danger:

Fourth: That, as subscribers, they would endeavour to gain signers
for the resolves and put them into practice:

Fifth: That attacks on the life or liberty of members would be jointly
repelled.

Thus at the Leedstown meeting open resistance to Great Britain was
declared in the W estmor eland Resolves, and signed by one hundred
and fifteen men. Among the signatures are those of three brothers of
George Washington and five Lees. This historic document was the
first of the large number of county, state, and national papers of import
to American history to be initiated, prepared, and signed by the Strat-
ford Lees.

Chantilly’s heights on Stratford Plantation became a center of Revo-

fMemoir of Richard Henry Lee, Vol. I, pp. 32-33.

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE 141

lutionary activities. So were other plantations of the Lees and their
kinspeople in different parts of Virginia: Bellevue, Menokin, Lee Hall,
Freestone Point, Leesylvania, Green Spring, Marmion, and Chatham.
Together the Stratford Lees represented in the Council and the House of
Burgesses: Westmoreland, Stafford, Prince William, Loudoun, and,
later, Richmond counties. Consequently in Williamsburg, the little
colonial capital, the Lee kindred and their friends found a central meet-
ing point. Here they met regularly "in the season.” The place the family
assumed in Westmoreland County in 1766 it continued to hold in the
Colony and later in the nation for more than a quarter of a century. As
far north as Philadelphia, the Lee family had in Shippen House, the
home of their sister Alice, headquarters for their revolutionary work.
Across the seas at Tower Hill in London was William, established there
soon after the signing of the Leedstown Resolutions. In London, too,
lived Arthur, in lodgings at the Temple. From these distant centers,
the Lees could conduct their activities in behalf of the colonies.

Through the strange working of destiny, members of this single
American family were thus placed in widely separated, yet strategic
points, in America and Europe at the very time the country’s need for
their services was greatest.

Because they were so situated it was possible to develop a plan for
furthering colonial union which had originated with Richard Henry
and his younger brothers at Stratford: the Secret Correspondence Com-
mittee. A preliminary step for colonial union was taken in 1744 bv
their father, when, with the Treaty of Lancaster, three of the colonies
united against a common danger. Another step was taken in 1765, with
the Stamp Act Congress. Still another was this plan of the Lees’ cor-
respondence committee. Under cover of personal letters, William and
Arthur Lee wrote from London to their brothers at Stratford minutely
detailed records of every event in England and in European centers be-
tween 1768 and 1779 which had bearing on the status of the colonies.
The letter from William Lee written from London, February 6, 1770,
to Richard Henry, quoted in H. Lee’s The Campaign of 1781 in the
Carolinas, is one of many hundreds illustrating this:

My Dear Brother,

I have just stole a moment to give you a little touch of politics; and as I
expect more trom you and Frank tor the good of America, than any others in
Virginia, the subject will be chiefly on American affairs; with this preamble,
where facts are mentioned, you may depend on their authenticity; tor which
reason egotisms will perhaps be too frequent, and in matters ot opinion you

A relic of the skirmish at Stratford Landing during the Revolution.

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE 143

may give what credit you please to them. Having already been in some respect
hurt, by my name being indiscreetly mentioned to captains of ships and others,
as a political intelligencer, I can trust only your discretion, not to do it unless
there should be a necessity to authenticate any fact. Ministerial changes the
papers are full of, that is, all but the king’s-men and the Bedford-men are out.
Lord North is fixed in the Duke of Grafton’s saddle; and though every party in
the kingdom is firmly united against the present set, there is no prospect of a
change. I am apt to think myself, the minority cannot succeed, owing to their
union with G. Grenville, against whom there is, in the Princess Dowager and
the King, such an implacable resentment, that he never can come in. If he does,
I give up my faith in the king's obstinacy. The present ministry are, from
principle, enemies to all political liberty, and consequently are enemies to
America. They have declared for repealing the American duties on paper, paint,
and glass, as being a tax on British manufactures; but as they are very far from
the design of giving up, or keeping dormant, the parliamentary right of taxing
America; the duty on tea is to be retained as an absolute fixed precedent, with
the other revenue acts, viz. the 4th and 6th of George III. chapters 1 “3th and
1 6th, the commission of customs, admiralty courts, &c. Indeed they say, that
the mighty boon of repealing the duties on paper, paint, and glass, is to be
with restrictions; what those restrictions may be, we are left to conjecture. But
from some hints, they are supposed to be, either a restraint on your manufac-
tures, or making your associations against British manufactures felony or
treason.

Lords Camden and Chatham are greater than ever; the last is really divine.
It is impossible for me to give you any idea of his sublimity. Smollett’s character
of his eloquence, will give you some faint notion of it. His sentiments and ex-
pressions of America are the same as before. The 2d mst. the House of Lords
sate from two o’clock in the evening, till past iwo in the morning, later than
ever was known. Lord Chatham astonished even those that had known him for
near forty years; though he was labouring under a fit of the gout. Lords Mans-
field. Marchment, Egmont, and all the rest, fell before him like grass before a
keen scythe. But ’twas all in vain — a question involving annihilation to the
constitution, was carried against him by a great majority.

February 10th. — Little alteration in American affairs, only instead of their
being heard the 12th, in the House of Commons, they are put off, and no time
fixed for them. Most think the tea will not be repealed, unless the India Com-
pany should carry it in their plan, which the ministry now say they will not
agree to. The minority strengthen every day; and things seem to be near a
crisis; the Lords’ protest makes every one think very seriously. If the high hand
in government continues, a spirit will very soon be raised that may burn some
people’s fingers.

Be steady in America, and explicit in your demands. Now is the only time to
insist firmly on them all. South Carolina has done nobly; this week the bill of
Rights-men have received £1500 sterling, sent them by the assembly, to assist
them in supporting the glorious cause they have undertaken.

My love to you all. Adieu. William Lee.

144 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

By such close observation and careful transcription, William and
Arthur Lee made themselves invaluable intelligence officers of the colo-
nies. The usefulness of such exact information about the politics and
personalities of England and other European capitals can scarcely be
overestimated. It was a contribution of first importance to the revolu-
tionary cause.

Once this information reached them, the Lees in America set skillfully
about its dissemination in every colony through their letters to men of
importance. They hoped also to get the essentials before the colonial
public by writing for the public prints and by inducing their influential
friends to do so. According to R. H. Lee in his Memoir of Richard
Henry Lee:

. . . General Gadsden, of South Carolina, a few years before his death,
remarked, while addressing an assemblage of citizens on the fourth of July,
that Richard Henry Lee had invited him, to become a member of a private
corresponding society as early as the year ’68, which, Mr. Lee informed him, he
was endeavouring to establish, between the influential men in the colonies. Ele
stated, that Mr. Lee described his object to be, to obtain a mutual pledge from
the members, to write for the public journals or papers, of their respective
colonies, and converse with, and inform the people, on the subject of their
rights, and their wrongs, and upon all seasonable occasions, to impress upon
their minds, the necessity of a struggle with Great Britain, for the ultimate
establishment of independence.

The Secret Correspondence Committee was in unofficial operation in
Virginia for several years before its adoption by the Colony in 1773,
at Richard Henry’s instance, as a permanent committee to spread the
doctrine of resistance. In 1772, an identical plan, initiated by Samuel
Adams, was set in motion in Massachusetts and was functioning in
every town in that Colony. These committees proved to be not only
the means of obtaining a vast amount of information but also of setting
it to work like yeast in the public mind. Today this activity would un-
doubtedly be termed a highly efficient intelligence division and propa-
ganda bureau. It was chiefly the work of the Lees of Stratford.

By the spring of 1774 "Politicks were the topic,” says Fithian, "and
indeed the Gentlemen seemed warm.” The sympathy of all the colo-
nies was turned toward Boston when the King and Parliament enacted
the Boston Port Bill, closing the harbor to commerce and setting a
stranglehold on the city’s chief financial resources. The port was to be
closed on June 1st. On May 24, the Burgesses met in Williamsburg, at
the Capitol. They passed a resolution expressing sympathy with the
people of Boston, and declaring it "highly necessary that the said first

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE

145

day of June next be set apart by the members of this house, as a day of
fasting, humiliation, and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine inter-
position for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to
our civil rights, and the evils of civil war.”

Edmund Randolph says of this move:

The style, in which the fast was recommended was too bold to be neglected
by the governor, as an effusion, which would evaporate on paper. It was a
cement among the colonies unconnected as they were in situation, and dissimilar
as they were in manners, habits, ideas of religion and government from the
states abounding in slaves. It brought home to the bosom of each colony the
apprehensions of every other; and if in the hour of reflection, the ministry could
have foreseen the approach of a closer union among the colonies, these resolu-
tions might have been well interpreted into the seed of a revolution. The gov-
ernor therefore resorted to his power of dissolving the assembly; a power
which hindered the circulation of offensive matter under the legislative seal, but
inoculated the whole colony with the poison, against which it was directed. . . .

The fast was obeyed throughout Virginia with such rigour and scruples, as
to interdict the tasting of food between the rising and setting sun. With the
remembrance of the king, horror was associated; and in churches as well as in
the circles of social conversation, he seemed to stalk like the Arch enemy of
mankind.4

Fithian writes:

. . . The lower Class of People here are in a tumult on the account of Reports
from Boston, many of them expect to be pressed and compelled to go and fight
the Britains! Evening I asked the Colonel if he proposed to observe the fast,
and attend Sermon to-morrow; he answered that "No one must go from hence
to Church, or observe the Fast at all.” By this, (for it is hard to know his opinion
from any thing he declares) I conclude he is a courtier. . . . Towards evening
Squire Lee call’d in, and brought a late London NewsPaper in which we are
informed that another Act of Parliament has pass’d taking from the People of
Boston all power of trying any Soldier, or Person whether for commiting any
Crime: and obliging all such offenders to be sent home for legal Tryal. Heaven
only knows where these tumults will End! He informed us likewise that last
Saturday in Richmond (our neighbor County) the people drest and burnt with
great marks of Detestation the infamous Lord North. . . .

Virginia’s action was identical with that of most of the colonies.
The first of June was a day of fasting and prayer from Maine to
Georgia. The church bells were tolled, flags were set at half mast in the
harbors. All the colonies sent cattle, grain, produce to Boston. At last
they were united by a persecution which might at any time descend on
every city on the coast.

‘Edmund Randolph’s Essay on the Revolutionary History of Virginia, 1774-178 2. Published
under the auspices of “The Virginians” of the City of New York. In the Virginia Magazine of
History and Biography.” July, 1935, XLVIII, p. 214.

Richard Henry Lee’s Independence Resolutions introduced in Continental Congress, j/me 7, 1776.

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE 147

The following day the Virginia Burgesses gathered together in the
Apollo Room at the Raleigh Tavern — their assembly hall in the Capitol
having been closed to them by their own governor. Here they deter-
mined to call a convention in Williamsburg on August first, to which
every county in the Colony should send delegates.

At the convention the grievances of the colonies were discussed in
detail, their rights declared and action taken to call a general congress
of all the colonies to meet September fourth in Philadelphia. Dele-
gates to this general congress were immediately elected. They included
Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick
Henry, Richard Bland,' Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton.

So the First Continental Congress was called into being.

Returning to Chantilly after the auspicious gathering in the Raleigh
Tavern at Williamsburg, Richard Henry Lee again called the men of
Westmoreland to a meeting like that at Leedstown eight years before.
This time they met in the courthouse at Montross, the county seat. This
was a small settlement located on a part of land which had once been
William Black’s farm, named Montross from his home in Scotland.

According to his grandson, R. H. Lee, Richard Henry "procured a
very full meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland. And after ha-
ranging them on the state of affairs, and inveighing in bold and indig-
nant terms against the English ministry, dwelling in pathetic description
on the sufferings of their countrymen in Boston, he proposed several
resolutions. These expressed a warm sympathy for the people of that
town, cheered them by assurances of support, and exhorted them to
persevere in their manly resistance.”

The measures adopted at this meeting June 22, 1774, are known as
"The Westmoreland Resolutions.”11 After asserting the fundamental
rights of taxation by representatives of the taxpayer’s choice, and brand-
ing the Boston Port Bill as an attack upon the liberties of the British
subjects, the resolutions called for unity of action "to resist the common
danger.” In expressing sympathy for the suffering sister Colony of
Massachusetts it was resolved: That Westmoreland County would join
in stopping all exports to and all imports from Great Britain and the
West Indies until the Port Bill was repealed; that no payment of debts
owed to British merchants would be made until grievances were re-

5Richard Bland resigned and his place as delegate was taken by Francis Light foot Lee.

“The Westmoreland Resolutions of 1774 are not to be confused with the Westmoreland Re-
solves of 1766. Both documents are the work of Richard Henry T.ee. Memoir of Richard Henry
Lee. I, 101-2.

148 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

dressed: that no products except food were to be sold, bought, or trans-
ported and that the county would join in a tea boycott. One hundred
and fifty years later such policies are termed economic sanctions.

Thus the summer of 1774 was an active one for the Stratford Lees.
As September fourth and the First Continental Congress approached,
Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Richard Henry Lee fired the
whole Colony with the spirit of freedom. Samuel Adams referred then
to Richard Henry as one of the "Friends of American Independence
and Freedom.”

All the colonies excepting Georgia sent delegates to the Philadelphia
Congress. The Virginians wanted, and asked for, what their forefathers,
the Old Standers at Jamestown wanted, and took: the right to govern
themselves where taxation, trade and local affairs were concerned, the
simple rights of Englishmen. Accordingly, the Congress addressed a pe-
tition to the King, another to the people of Great Britain, and a third to
the people of Canada. The Congress worked out an agreement to attack
England by refusing all trade with her. Conservatism ruled every ses-
sion. Moderation was the watchword. The first Congress stood on
precarious ground. The twelve colonies represented there were like
twelve separate countries. Each had its own governor, its separate laws
and separate form of government, its own interests to look to. Each
was jealous of the other. Virginia and Massachusetts had to step warily.
In the few weeks the Congress was in session, it accomplished what it
set out to do, adjourned early in October, and called the second Con-
tinental Congress to meet in Philadelphia the following May, 1775.

Until the convening of the Continental Congress, each one of the
thirteen colonies had been in effect a separate country. But now a
plan was evolved by which the colonies were to be drawn together and
to become the United Provinces of North America with the city of
Philadelphia their capital. Thus was real progress made. The tide was
coming in.

To the Lees and Samuel Adams especially, it was apparent that the
continued activity of the correspondence committees must go on. Much
would depend upon the information and upon the response people gave
to their local committees working under the guidance of the committees
of correspondence. This meant endless planning and never ceasing labor
for the Stratford Lees. By the new year, innumerable associations were
forming in Virginia and in every other colony, associations pledged to
oppose by force of arms the aggressions of the King.

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE 149

A letter written early in 1775 to William Lee by Henry Lee of Lee-
syl vania expresses the situation clearly: "The Gentlemen are training
themselves thro’ the Continent every week and have raised Companys
who muster two days every week and emulate to Excell each other in ye
manual manoeuvers and Evolutions as practised by the King of Prussia’s
Troops, for we are determined on Preserving our Libertys if necessary
at the Expense of our Blood, being resolved not to survive Slavery.”

During these years when Philip Lee’s five younger brothers were
thus "toiling in the vineyard of liberty,” affairs at the Great House and
on the plantation were steadily improving.

As a member of the King’s Council, Philip Lee continued to attend
meetings at Williamsburg; but for the most part he was absorbed in his
new interests of a growing family and in building up the stud farm and
the industrial activities of the plantation.

i 1 i i

Philip and Elizabeth Steptoe Lee were the parents of two daughters,
Matilda and Flora. Matilda was her father’s pet. No expense was
spared in the education and training of the two little girls. According
to G. W. Beale:

The years preceding the Revolution, which were passed at Stratford . . .
were probably the most prosperous in the history of this noted home. The rapid
increase of the slave population, the as yet unwasted fertility of the soil, and
the good prices for tobacco, had tended to increase largely the wealth of the
planters. An educational spirit had been very generally fostered, and a larger
proportion of young men of collegiate training were to be found in the Colony
than at any time previously. In the culture of its visitors, the abundance of its
comforts and the easy flow and elegant grace of its social life, these were bright
and auspicious years in the Stratford calendar. The proprietor of Stratford at
this period was enlisted heartily in various projects deemed of advantage to the
agricultural and political interests of his fellow colonists. He was also deeply
interested in the establishment of a town in Fairfax county, near the falls of the
Potomac, to which he gave the name Philee, and which the Assembly chartered.

Another Virginia town which Philip Lee founded was named Matil-
daville in honor of his elder daughter.

During 1773, the dancing master, Mr. Christian, celebrated in the
Colony, had a class at Stratford. "... Virginians are of genuine Blood.
They will dance or die!” Fithian gives an interesting series of descrip-
tions and narrations of this period, in which the Philip Lees of Stratford
often figure. They present Philip in a more favorable light than do the
records of his earlier years: he describes "Social evenings:”

When the candles were lighted, we all repaired, for the last time, into the

150

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

dancing-room; first each couple danced a Minuet; then all joined as before in
the country Dances, these continued till half after Seven when Mr. Christian
retired; and at the proposal of several, (with Mr. Carters approbation) we
played Button, to get Pauns for Redemption; here I could join with them, and
indeed it was carried on with sprightliness, and Decency; in the course of re-
deeming my Pauns I had several Kisses of the Ladies! Early in the Evening
came colonel Philip Lee, in a travelling Chariot from Williamsburg. Half after
eight we were rung in to Supper; The room looked luminous and splendid; four
very large candles burning on the table where we supped; three others in differ-
ent parts of the Room; a gay sociable Assembly, and four well instructed waiters!
So soon as we rose from supper, the Company formed into a semicircle round
the fire, and Mr. Lee, by the voice of the Company was chosen Pope, and Mr.
Carter, Mr. Christian, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Lee, and the rest of the company were
appointed Friars, in the Play call’d "break the Popes neck.” Here we had
great Diversion in the respective Judgments upon offenders, but we were all
dismissed by ten, and retired to our several Rooms.

Saturday , December 18. After Breakfast, we all retired into the Dancing
Room, and after the Scholars had their Lesson singly round Mr. Christian, very
politely, requested me to step a Minuet; I excused myself, however, but signified
my peculiar pleasure in the accuracy of their performance. There were sveral
Minuets danced with great ease and propriety; after which the whole company
joined in country-dances, and it was indeed beautiful to admiration, to see such
a number of young persons, set off by dress to the best advantage, moving easily,
to the sound of well performed Music, and with perfect regularity, tho’ ap-
parently in the utmost Disorder. The Dance continued til two, we dined at half
after three. ... I observe in the course of the lessons, that Mr. Christian is
punctual, and rigid in his discipline, so strict indeed that he stuck two of the
young Misses for a fault in the course of their performance, even in the pres-
ence of the Mother of one of them ! And he rebuked one of the young Fellows
so highly as to tell him he must alter his manner, which he had observed through
the Course of the Dance, to be insolent, and wanton, or absent himself from the
School.

Late in February of 1775 — scarcely two months before the British
marched into Lexington and the first battles of the Revolution were
fought — there came to the Great House on the same day, almost
at the same hour, both death and life. Philip Ludwell Lee, the second
master of Stratford, died suddenly, and, at the moment of his interment,
his first son was born— the new master of Stratford — also named Philip
Ludwell Lee. Word of these events is given in two letters printed in
Lee of Virginia. The first is from Henry Lee, cousin and former guard-
ian of the Stratford children, to William Lee, in London:

Leesylvania, 1st March, 1775.

Dear Sir, I have the melancholy news to Inform you of yr Brother Col. Phil’s
death, who died at Stratford of a nervous Pleurisy on the 21st of last month

In CONGRESS, July 4, i//u.

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154 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

and has left Mrs. Lee his widow Very Big with Child; in him Virg’a has lost an
able Judge . . . this Vacancy I hope you will use your utmost Efforts to fill up
in Council with your Brother Thos. or Franc: ; as the former will inherit all yr
Brother’s real Estate in Westmorl’d by your Father's will unless Mrs. Lee’s
Child should be a son, I could wish the Elonour of the Family to be fixed at
Stratford, as to your Bro. Col. Rich'd Henry I would by no means have him out
of the House of Burgesses, as there is at Present the greatest reasons to Expect
he will succeed Mr. Randolph as Speaker, who is old and infirm.

The second reference is in another letter to Wilham from Richard,
or "Squire” Lee of Lee Hall:

I wrote the 23d of February [1775] you that your Brother, the Honourable
Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq., departed this Life the 21st of that month; he was
interred on the 24th of February, his birthday, and a son was born the same
day and at the time of his Interment. No will has been found.

The burial place of Philip Ludwell Lee was doubtless the family
graveyard at Stratford. This is located in the grove of trees eastward
from the house and at the end of the garden where a vault was erected
in later years. All Virginia homes had their family graveyards.

Two years after Philip’s death occurred the death of Thomas Lud-
well Lee, who was greatly beloved by his brothers and his friends. At
the meetings of every assembly and convention in which he took part,
he had stood with his younger brothers on the side of the patriots. His
passing was deeply mourned.

Richard Henry wrote to Arthur, then in London, under date of May
12, 1778:

It is with infinite pain that I inform you our clear brother of Belleview de-
parted this life on the 13th of April last, after sustaining a severe Rheumatic
fever for six weeks. Dr. Steptoe attended him the whole time, and I was also
with him. Both public and private considerations render this loss most lament-
able. He had just been appointed one of our five judges of the General Court,
in which station he was well qualified to do his country eminent service. He has
left behind him a numerous family (7 children) and a very disconsolate widow.

Peak’s portrait of Richard Henry Lee in profile shows a gaunt, pale
face with deep-set cavernous eyes— the face of a man who has come
through war and cannot forget. It has, too, a curious sense as of one
never sleeping, always on guard. It is tense, eager, alert, single-minded.

No other contemporary portraits of Lee are known to the author but
there are several pen pictures. John Adams said to R. H. Lee:

With your grandfather, Richard Henry Lee, I served in Congress from 1774
to 1778, and afterward in the Senate of the United States in 1789- He was a
yentleman of fine talents, of amiable manners and great worth. As a public

Richard Henry Lee: From the original portrait by Charles Willson Peale, non in the
possession of Mrs. Lanier McKee.

156

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

speaker, he had a fluency as easy and graceful as it was melodious, which his
classical education enabled him to decorate with frequent allusion to the finest
passages of antiquity. With all his brothers, he was always devoted to the cause
of his country.

Charles Campbell wrote of Lee some eighty-five years ago:

He was in person tall and well proportioned; his features bold and expres-
sive; nose, Roman; forehead high, not wide; eyes light colored; the contour of
his face noble. He had lost by an accident the use of one of his hands; and was
sometimes styled "the gentleman of the silver hand”; he kept it covered with a
black silk bandage, but leaving his thumb free. Notwithstanding this disadvan-
tage his gesture was very graceful. His voice melodious, his elocution Ciceronian,
his diction elegant and easy. His eloquence flowed on in tranquil beauty, like
the stream of his own Potomac. . . .

In the generation after him H. Lee wrote about Richard Henry in his
Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson in the stilted style
characteristic of the period:

From what has been said and written of this distinguished man, it appears
that from the commencement of our revolutionary struggles to their end, he was
for patriotism, statesmanship, and oratory, regarded as the Cicero of his country.
He was remarkable even amidst the crowd of patriots for a sensitive and im-
patient love of liberty; and this he encouraged and inflamed by a fond contem-
plation of those bright and melancholy examples, which the victims of ancient
and modern tyranny have left in the characters of Phocion, of Cato, of Sidney,
and of Russel. This gave to his classical and chaste elocution, a tone of depth
and inspiration, which, set off as it was by a majestic figure, a noble countenance,
and a graceful delivery, charmed while it roused or convinced his auditory.

Though he never poured down upon agitated assemblies, a cataract of
mingled passion and logic like Patrick Henry, yet he rivetted the excited atten-
tion and enchanted fancy of his hearers. . . .

His kinsman’s appraisal of Lee’s oratory seems singularly accurate
when one reviews the records of the Continental Congress for June
seventh, 1776. Pursuant to the instructions from Virginia, Richard
Henry Lee offered the resolution which heralded the final break with
the mother country. It is breath-taking in its simplicity:

Resolved:

That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that
all political connection btween them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought
to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for form-
ing foreign alliances.

That a plan for confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective
colonies for their consideration and approbation.

The following day saw the beginning of the debate on the Lee Reso-

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE 157

lution. So important were the implications, so momentous the decision
involved, and so essential was it to hear from all of the colonies, that
Congress postponed the final vote for over three weeks. Richard Henry
Lee defended his resolution in and out of the Congress.

On June 10th he again rose from his seat and, facing his colleagues,
said:

Why then do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give
birth to an American Republic! Let her rise, not to devastate and conquer, but
to reestablish the reign of peace and law. The eyes of Europe are upon us, she
invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the
persecuted repose.

In words that proved prophetic, he continued:

We are not this day wanting in our duty to our country, the names of the
American legislators of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all those
whose memory has been, and forever will be dear to virtuous men and good
citizens!

Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin were among the
members supporting him. Two days of debate passed. Delegates from
only seven or eight of the colonies were instructed to vote in favor of
the Lee Resolution. It was tabled for further consideration and a com-
mittee elected to draw up a fuller and more detailed announcement,
pointing out to the colonies the reasons why separation from Great
Britain was necessary. The men elected to serve on the committee were:
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman,
and Robert R. Livingston.

Lee was called to Virginia on June 13 to attend the state convention
and by strange irony of fate thus missed writing the Declaration based
upon the resolution of which he was the author. That honor fell to
Thomas Jefferson.

On July 1, debate on the resolution started once more, with Lee still
absent. John Adams was the leader of the delegates approving and
urging its passage. On the second day of July the vote was called. Lee’s
motion unanimously carried.

Two days later, on July 4, the Declaration itself was adopted by the
Congress. Lee returned to Philadelphia in time to sign the document.
His name and that of Frank (Francis Lightfoot) are the only brothers
on that list of the fifty-six Signers.

From this time Richard Henry Lee was a national figure. He belonged
no longer to Virginia alone, but to thirteen colonies whose union he
had labored to bring about.

158 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

One of his first acts as Burgess was to introduce a motion "to lay so
heavy a duty on the importation of slaves, as effectually to put an end
to that iniquitous and disgraceful traffic within the colony of Virginia."
It was his conviction that the interests of the Colony were seriously en-
dangered by the continued importation of slaves, and the consequent
checking thereby of white immigration:

When it is observed that some of our neighbouring colonies, though much
later than ourselves in point of settlement, are now far before us in improve-
ment, to what, sir, can we attribute this strange, this unhappy truth ? The rea-
son seems to be this: that with their whites they import arts and agriculture,
whilst we, with our blacks, exclude both. Nature has not partially favoured
them with superiour fertility of soil, nor do they enjoy more of the sun’s cheer-
ing and enlivening influence; yet greatly have they outstript us.

Evidently Richard Henry wished to encourage the type of immigrant
which his father as governor had done so much to bring to Virginia,
when he sponsored the coming of the pioneer German tradesmen and
agriculturists. Richard Henry Lee opposed slavery from the day he
entered public life, and his younger brothers shared his views. For four
years he served in the Continental Congresses. He was president of the
first Congress of the United States and later one of the first senators
from Virginia. He was deeply concerned in the formation of the
Articles of Confederation and in the development of constructive for-
eign alliances. During the time the Constitutional Convention was sit-
ting, Lee had an important share in the creation of the Northwest Ordi-
nance, that measure which determined in such large part the develop-
ment of the United States.

The scene of his activities shifted from Philadelphia to Virginia, then
to Philadelphia, later to New York, again to Philadelphia, and back at
last to Chantilly. But it was at Stratford Hall and in the early years at
Chantilly that he was first cast in the role of Friend of Freedom. There
had been bred in the bone that nobility, fearlessness, and vision which
made him one of the first citizens of the country. And of the world as
well. In a letter to Lafayette, written October 30, 1785, he mentioned
various alliances designed to promote peace. "Among the many leagues
that are formed,” he says, "why may not one be made for the purpose
of protecting the rights of humanity?” For over a century the same
thought stirred the minds of other champions of union for justice.
Then the League of Nations was born.

Although Chantilly on the Potomac, Richard Henry Lee’s home, was
the one part of Stratford Plantation to be identified with the activities of

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Letter of Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson to the Go ren/or of Virginia.

160 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

the Lees just prior to and during the Revolution, Bellevue in Stafford
was also a center for patriot work. There Thomas Ludwell Lee had
lived from the late seventeen-fifties until his untimely death in 1778.
He had been a prominent member of the Virginia Convention of 1775,
where he served on the committee of safety, the only governing body in
the Colony. He was a member of the committee to draft a declaration
of rights and a plan of government in the Convention of 1776. In later
years he served on the committee of which George Mason was chairman,
to revise the laws of Virginia in accordance with the changed political
conditions in America. George Wythe and Edmund Pendleton were
the other two members.

When the new government was organized under the state constitution,
he was elected one of the five judges of the General Court, the highest
court in the state, but died before he could serve.

There was also another "stronghold of freedom” in the home of the
Lees’ cousin and former guardian, Henry Lee, and his five sons, Henry,
Charles, Richard Bland, Edmund Jennings, and Theodoric. Their home,
Freestone Point, Leesylvania, was in Prince William County, also on the
Potomac, about three miles from Dumfries. With the exception of
Henry, who enlisted in the service of the Revolution the year after he
was graduated from Princeton and became the famous Legion Harry or
Light-Horse Harry Lee, Henry Lee’s sons were only boys at the time
their older brother and their Stratford Hall cousins were in the thick of
the struggle.

Frank Lee of Menokin, on the Rappahannock, was in his quiet way a
most ardent revolutionist. He was less widely known than Richard
Henry and was never in the limelight, but in ability he was not inferior
to his elder brother and had great political influence.

No Virginian bent on resisting the British government had a bolder
spirit than Francis Lightfoot Lee. He took part in every measure of
defiance to the British government. He was not a good speaker, for
he was shy, reserved, inarticulate in public. But he had brains. He
thought things through. He worked behind the scenes. After signing
the Westmoreland Resolves against the Stamp Act on February 27, 1766,
he was one of the Burgesses at the meeting in the Apollo Room of the
Raleigh Tavern. He was a member of the Virginia committee of cor-
respondence. The call for the Virginia convention of August, 1774,
was signed by him; and he was a member of that convention as well as
of the succeeding one of March. In the same year he was chosen a dele-

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Original verse written by Nancy Shi p pen (Airs. Henry Beekman Livingston ) to her uncle,
Francis Lightjoot Lee.

162 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

gate to the first Continental Congress to succeed Colonel Richard Bland,
resigned.

Frank was the second member of the Lee family to sign the Declara-
tion of Independence. As a member of the committee which drew up
the articles of confederation, he gave effective service in the debates on
the Newfoundland fisheries and in those advocating the free navigation
of the Mississippi River. He sat in the Continental Congress until June,
1779. In later years he continued to serve the interests of Virginia as a
member of Congress.

Like his brother, Thomas Ludwell, Francis inherited certain of their
father’s personal characteristics. Thomas Lee’s sincerity, his genial hos-
pitality, his capacity for evoking steadfast affection and enthusiastic
support, and his quiet, unostentatious, but forceful manner and method
of life were to a large extent inherited by his sons Frank and Thomas
Ludwell.

A commentary on Frank Lee, long since out of print, is contained in a
brief sketch by Mark Twain:

He dealt in no shams; he had no ostentations of dress or equipage; for he
was, as one may say, inured to wealth. He had always been used to it. His own
ample means were inherited. He was educated. He was more than that — he
was finely cultivated. He loved books; he had a good library, and no place had
so great a charm for him as that. . . .

Mr. Lee defiled himself with no juggling, or wire-pulling, or begging, to
acquire a place in the provincial legislature, but went thither when he was called,
and went reluctantly. He wrought industriously during four years, never seek-
ing his own ends, but only the public’s. His course was purity itself, and he
retired unblemished when his work was done. He retired gladly, and sought his
home and its superior allurements. No one dreamed of such a thing as "investi-
gating” him.

Immediately the people called him again — this time to a seat in the Con-
tinental Congress. He accepted this unsought office from a sense of duty only,
and during four of the darkest years of the Revolution he labored with all his
might for his country’s best behests. He did no brilliant things, he made no
brilliant speeches; but the enduring strength of his patriotism was manifest,
his fearlessness in confronting perilous duties and compassing them was patent
to all, the purity of his motives was unquestioned, his unpurchasable honor and
uprightness were unchallenged. His good work finished, he hurried back to the
priceless charms of his home once more, and begged hard to be allowed to spend
the rest of his days in the retirement and repose which his faithful labors had so
fairly earned; but this could not be, he was solicited to enter the State Legis-
lature; he was needed there; he was a good citizen, a citizen of the best and
highest type, and so he put self aside and answered to the call. . . .

From points abroad William and Arthur Lee kept in as close touch

THE BAND OF BROTHERS: INTREPID AND UNCHANGEABLE 163

with Francis as they did with Richard Henry. All the family were
devoted to "Frank and Becky.” A few messages taken at random from
some of William’s letters to Frank in the Lee Letter Books in Harvard
College library give a view of the personal side of the warm friendship
between the two brothers and their wives. On March 27, 1772, William
writes from London: "Mrs. Lee joins me in affectionate love to you and
our Dr Sister I beg my best respects to Col. Tayloe & the family all at Mc
Airy.” In another letter he sends to Menokin books and magazines,
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the laws of England, and ends with
"Heaven bless you both — Farewell.” Again he says: "Mrs. Lee & myself
have the most affectionat feelings for your sym [sympathetic] Fireside.
I thank you for the intelligence about my estate. I cant think Cary W is
a good crop master, for it is impossible any land could be so poor as in
the finest years to require the labor of 4 negroes to make 8 or 9 Hogsheads
of Tobacco. Farewell I wish you health & every other happiness being
most sincerely & affecionately Yours William Lee.” Again he says: "I
have only now to assure you & our Dear Sister of Mrs. Lee’s & my
sincere Love being most truely Yr Affe1 Friend & Dr William Lee.”7

'These excerpts have not been collated with the originals.

CHAPTER VIII: VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE
IMMENSA CUPIDO

A RTHUR LEE’S chambers, at No. 2 Garden Court, in the Middle
Temple, London, looked into a delightful little garden on the
JL jV Thames, of which he had the key: "I could go in and out at all
hours, and have what company I pleased, without being questioned or
overlooked. I was near the Royal Society, of which I was a fellow,
where, every week, whatever was new and ingenious in literature was
communicated. Not far from me was the hall of the Society of Arts and
Agriculture, of which I was an honorary member, and where I had ac-
cess to all the new discoveries in arts, agriculture, and mechanics.

"The play houses and the opera were equally convenient, where I
could select the opportunity of seeing the best tragedies and comedies
represented, and of hearing the most exquisite music. I was a subscriber
to Bach’s and Abel’s concert, where the most masterly performers of the
world (Bach, Abel, Fisher, Tassot, Ponto, and Crosdal), played to a
most polite and fashionable audience, in one of the most elegant con-
cert rooms in the world. In the field of politics, from the politician in
the cider-cellar to the peer in his palace, I had access and influence. At
the Bill of Rights, the city of Landon, the East India House, and with the
opposition in both houses, I was of some consideration. Among my
particular friends, to whom I always had access, were Lord Shelburne,
Mr. Downing, Col. Barre, Mr. Wilkes, Sergeant Glynn, and several
others. I was so well with several of the nobility and gentry that I
could spend all my leisure time at their country seats. At Bath I had a
very extensive acquaintance; and there is not in the world a more agree-
able place to one so circumstanced. As one of the law, I enjoyed the
protection and distinction of that body, with the prospect of rising to
place and profit, which all of that body, who have moderate abilities,
enjoy. So circumstanced, nothing but the peculiar and extraordinary
crisis of the times prevented me from being entirely happy, and pur-
suing the fortune which sat with golden plumes within my reach. But
everything was absorbed in the great contest which I saw fast approach-
ing; and which soon called upon me to quit London, and take an open
part in the Revolution, as a representative of the United States at the
Court of France.”1

Arthur Lee was thus pleasantly "circumstanced” as he says during the

1 Life of Arthur Lee, by Richard Henry Lee. Boston, Wells and Lilly, 1829, II, 391-392.
[164]

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 165

years before the Revolution, from 1768 to 1776, the year he was ap-
pointed Joint Commissioner from the United Colonies to France. Of all
the Stratford Lees he had the most varied and perhaps the most inter-
esting life, associated as it was with foreign places and with men of
affairs of many parts of England and of Europe. On the playing fields
at Eton, he formed the basis for later friendships with members of es-
tablished English families. From Eton Arthur went to the Universitv
of Edinburgh to study medicine, "general science and polite literature.”
His father always intended him for the medical profession. In 1764 he
received his degree as Doctor of Medicine, traveled on the continent
for several months, and in 1766 returned to Virginia. FFe settled in
Williamsburg to practice medicine. According to an unpublished letter
written by Thomas Jones of Virginia to his brother Walter, then a stu-
dent at the University of Edinburgh: "Mr. Lee arrived here I think about
4 or 5 weeks past, it is thought he will make a great Figure, as soon as he
came to WestmorelV he might have had as many patients as he could
attend, but his being there was only by way of visit to his Friends, &
then to the Metropolis; where he is to reside.”

Obviously, Arthur’s return to his own country was influenced by the
letter from his elder brother Richard Henry, in which he spoke so earn-
estly of America’s need for— and claim upon — her sons who were fitted
to aid her:

But then, my brother, when these, or either of these [arts and learning] are
acquired, should not their possessor import them into his native country; which
if forsaken by the best of her sons, must fall into barbarous ignorance, and of
course, become a fit subject for tyrannical natures to impose arbitrary and injuri-
ous acts upon. Should America make the same progress in the arts and sciences,
as she infallibly must do in numbers of people, despotism will quickly learn,
that her friendship is on no other terms to be obtained than by a free intercourse
and equal participation of good offices, liberty and free constitution of govern-
ment.

America, then, has a parent’s claim to her descendants, and a right to insist
that they shall not fix in any place, where, by so doing, they may add strength
to the cruel and tyrannical oppression.

It was not long before Arthur joined his brothers in their political
activities and determined to give up practicing medicine to study law.
In less than two years he returned to England and entered Lincoln’s Inn,
and later the Middle Temple, as a law student. The course Arthur had
originally charted on his return to England from Williamsburg, he
described years later in a letter to his nephew Tom Shippen. He in-
tended to try his fortune in Westminster Hall, to become a "British

1 66 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

subject” and aim for the Chief Justice’s bench or "the Seat of the Ld
High Chancellor.” And if he obtained the title of "my Lord,” it would
not perhaps render him less acceptable! He wrote to Tom: "I mark out
to you the path I intended to pursue, in which six years patient perse-
verance had advanced me hopefully, when my zeal for liberty & my
country made me sacrifice all my prospects to embrace their then peril-
ous & doubtful cause ...”

He became a member of the society of supporters of the Bill of
Rights. In a literary controversy in which he engaged with Junius, he
wrote under the signature of "Junius Americanus” political articles
that gained him the acquaintance of Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke,
and other eminent men. Lee’s papers, "The Monitor’s Letters,” in vindi-
cation of colonial rights, were published in 1769. In the following year
he received his first official appointment with the American colonies —
Agent for Massachusetts.

On February 14, 1773, he wrote from London: "I am considered here
as the most determined supporter of the cause of America. I am there-
fore so obnoxious as to have no hope of favor here nor am I likely to re-
ceive any reward from those for whom I have sacrificed myself. Were
my fortune independent this would not give me a moment’s concern.
I certainly feel that virtue is its own reward. But at the same time I
cannot but be sensible that narrowness of circumstances is a very great
obstacle.”2

In 1774 he wrote "An Appeal to the People of Great Britain” which
was ascribed to Lord Chatham.

Arthur was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1775 and began to
practice law in that year. According to his biographer, R. H. Lee, he
became "a conspicuous and successful advocate, and was in habits of
intimacy with Dunning and Glynn, and was often engaged in cases
with them.” He had perhaps a more extensive acquaintance in English
political and social circles than had any other American of that period.
Chatham and Burke he knew particularly well, a fact which enabled
him to be of much value in obtaining what hearing the American cause
received.

During the summer of 1775 Lee was associated with Richard Penn
in the effort to present to George III the second petition of Congress to
the King— the Olive Branch Petition. Issued by the second Continental

2Vol. II, Lee Letter Books, Library of Harvard College : Original letter from Arthur, prob-
ably to Francis Lightfoot Lee : not collated with the original.

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170 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Congress, July 8, 1775, it was written by John Dickinson and sent by
Richard Penn to London. The Olive Branch Petition was signed by
Richard Henry Lee, and forty-five other members of Congress, twenty-
five of whom later signed the Declaration of Independence. Presented
by Arthur Lee in England, the petition showed the sincerity of the pa-
triots. It was the last effort made by the American colonies to avert
war.

In the petition the attention of the King was drawn to several points:
the benefit to the kingdom of the union with the colonies, and the bene-
fits which that union contributed to the glory of the colonies and of
England. It expressed the hope that the fruits of both peace and victorv
might be shared but showed that such a hope was unlikely to be ful-
filled because of the new laws and regulations which the royal ministers
had been unscrupulous enough to levy. And now, Congress, wishing
to use all the means in her power — or means which could be pursued
with safety — to stop further bloodshed, petitioned the King to interpose
in order to relieve the tension in the colonies.

Lee and Penn saw Lord Dartmouth first on August 21, 1775, but
could not deliver the original copy of the petition which he was to pre-
sent to the King September first. Finally a reply was received stating
that as His Majesty did not receive it upon the throne, no answer would
be given, but George III had already given his answer in the Procla-
mation of Rebellion on August 23rd.

In November, 1775, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Dick-
inson were appointed a committee by the Continental Congress to carry
on secret correspondence with the friends of the American colonies
abroad. On December 12 they appointed Arthur Lee secret agent of
the Continental Congress in London, and entrusted him with letters and
dispatches to transmit to other men on the Continent in key positions
to aid them. They wrote to Lee:

It would be agreeable to Congress to know the disposition of foreign
powers towards us, and we hope this object will engage your attention. We
need not hint that great circumspection and impenetrable secrecy are neces-
sary. The Congress rely on your zeal and abilities to serve them, and will
readily compensate you for whatever trouble and expense a compliance with
their desire may occasion. We remit you for the present £200.

Whenever you think the importance of your dispatches may require it, we
desire you to send an express boat with them from England, for which service
your agreement with the owner there shall be fulfilled by us here. We can
now only add that we continue firm in our resolutions to defend ourselves,
notwithstanding the big threats of the ministry.3

journals of Continental Congress, Vol. 5, p. 8 27.

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 171

It was in his capacity of secret agent that Arthur Lee entered into
negotiations with the French government, at first through the medium
of the ardent Caron de Beaumarchais and later directly with Comte de
Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the same time
Lee was also officially serving Virginia as agent, and, with the aid of
Beaumarchais, succeeded in procuring for that Colony warlike stores to
the value of nearly £260,000 from the royal arsenals of France.

Sometime before in England, Arthur Lee had taken measures through
the French Ambassador to Great Britain to interest France in raising a
financial loan to the colonies. He was tireless in following up efforts to
win the friendship of France, as of the other courts of Europe for
America.

Major Henry Lee in his Observations on the Writings of Thomas
Jefferson, says of his kinsman, Arthur Lee:

But skill as a writer, though important to Mr. Lee as arming him with an
effective weapon to be used in the service of his country, furnishes the smallest
part of his title to its gratitude. His zeal, perseverance, efficiency and disinter-
estedness, are the great qualities which entitle him to the highest praise. The
spirit with which he entered upon his public career is evidenced in the following
extract from a letter of his to his friend, the Earl of Shelburne, afterwards
Marquis of Lansdowne. f p^ Decemher 2}d , m ]

My Lord, — A very few hours after my last letter to your Lordship brought
me the desire of my country that I should serve her in a public capacity. Your
Lordship thinks too well of me, I hope, to suppose I could hesitate a moment.
In fact, almost the same minute saw me bid adieu, perhaps forever, to a country
where I had fixed my fortunes, and to a people whom I most respected, and
could have loved. But the first object of my life is my country — the first wish
of my heart is public liberty. I must see, therefore, the liberties of my countries
established, or perish in her last struggle.

Meanwhile William Lee had come to have an important and influen-
tial civic position in London. Successful as a business man, he was
elected Alderman of Aldgate Ward. The beginning of the Revolution
found him holding the office of High Sheriff of London. According to
Worthington C. Ford in his Letters of William Lee, he was the only
American ever to have served in such offices in London. In 1777 he was
appointed commercial agent for the Continental Congress in France. As
an agent for the Congress, William Lee’s duties included special diplo-
matic as well as business service. His letters were important as a contri-
bution to American history, and solve many uncertain and complicated
points and questions in the foreign relations of the young republic in
its most critical period.

172 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The Honorable Blair Lee says of William Lee: "In the tumult of
London politics his patriotic espousal of the American cause involved
the sacrifice of a large personal fortune and the loss of a prosperous
business.”

In January, 1777, when William was serving as commercial agent at
Nantes, he was associated with Thomas Morris. On May 9 he was
elected commissioner to the courts of Vienna and Berlin and commis-
sioned July 1, but he was not received at either court. On September 4,
1778, to quote Wharton: "William Lee and M. de Neufville of the
Netherlands, drafted a treaty between the United States and the Nether-
lands at Aix-la-Chapelle, but the treaty was never signed by either
country. The draft treaty was in the possession of Henry Laurens when
he was seized by the British on Sept. 3, 1780, and became one of the
causes of war between the Netherlands and Great Britain.”

Early in 1779 William was recalled. In Volume One of the Calendar
of State Papers of Virginia is this letter to Governor Henry, dated Sep-
tember 24, 1779, written by Lee concerning the recall:

His Excellency, Gov. Henry, was pleased in 1777, with the advice of the
Council, to appoint me Agent in France, for the state of Virginia, and in 1778,
by same authority sent me a power under State Seal to obtain Arms, Artillery
and Ammunition of his most Xtian Majesty, Ministers or any other persons to
amount of 2,000,000 Livres, . . . These Documents came to be at Vienna, . . .
and I also sent a power to my brother, Mr. Arthur Lee, who was then in Paris,
to solicit the business for me at the Court of Versailles. ... In consequence
there was obtained from the French Ministry amunition amounting to £219,489-,
and my brother advanced the money for swords etc., which with other expenses
amounted to 45,000 Livres. My brother chartered vessels to convey these goods
to Virginia. . . . (mentions a purchase of very inferior guns, through a chan-
nel he did not regard highly and hopes they will not reach Virginia) ....
My brother has given Gov. Henry account of his proceedings and now writes
me, he has no more money to advance, and needs 27,000 Livres for freight pay-
ment to ship owners. Having no money myself, we shall be greatly distressed
unless you can hasten remittances, ... I have heard that Congress has dis-
pensed with my services. . . .

In September, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin
Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson as commissioners to the
court of France and directed them "to procure from that Court, at the
expence of these United States, either by purchase or loan, eight line of
battle ships of 74 and 64 guns, well manned, and fitted in every respect
for service; That as these ships may be useful in proportion to the quick-
ness with which they reach North America, the Commissioners be di-
rected to expedite this negotiation with all possible diligence.”

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 173

Mr. Jefferson informed Congress that the state of his family would
not permit him to go as their Commissioner to France and Arthur Lee
was elected in his place. The Committee of Secret Correspondence noti-
fied Lee of his appointment and that his powers and instructions were
lodged in Paris. According to the records of the Department of State
of the United States, Arthur Lee of Virginia was appointed:

Joint commissioner to court of France with full powers to negotiate treaties:
elected October 22, 1776, to replace Thomas Jefferson, who had declined ap-
pointment on the commission; signed, with Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin,
treaties of commerce and alliance February 6, 1778; commission dissolved Sep-
tember 14, 1778, upon appointment of Benjamin Franklin as sole minister
plenipotentiary.

Commissioner also to court of Spain: elected May 1, 1777; commissioned
June 5, 1777, but never went to Spain on this mission, although he had been
there previously in the financial interests of the United States.

The last reference is to Lee’s action in presenting to the Spanish gov-
ernment a memoir of "The Present State of the Dispute between Amer-
ica and Great Britain,” and procuring a large money loan from Spain
for the colonies. In a more or less private capacity he went to Berlin,
where he corresponded secretly with the Prussian Court and received
assurance of its friendly interest in the colonies.

Meanwhile, Lee’s personal relations with Franklin and Deane, never
pleasant, reached a crisis. Lee charged his colleagues with connivance
at fraud and corruption and with being under French influence. There
were charges and counter-charges. An international scandal developed
which, one hundred and fifty-eight years afterwards, has not been en-
tirely cleared. Although Lee secured the recall of Deane, Franklin’s
position seemed impregnable. At length, because of Franklin’s prestige
and the high regard in which he was held by the French Court, a situa-
tion arose in which it was considered wise to retire Arthur Lee from the
diplomatic service. In the fall of 1779, this action was taken, and at the
same time William Lee was recalled as Commissioner to Holland.

Arthur Lee, aroused and indignant, returned to America early in
1780 to place his cause before Congress and the American public. In
reference to the controversy and its unjust reaction upon him, Lee wrote
Tom Shippen:

In return [for years of service] I am now cast off with as much disgrace as
they can fix upon me, & must spend the remainder of my life in circumstances
hardly above indegence. An endeavor to shield my Country from the depreda-
tions of Franklin Deene & Beaumarchais dismissed me before from public em-
ployment— the same attempt repeated against Morris & his adherents — is now

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Original letter to the public written by Arthur Lee in Paris.

176 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

the cause of my dismission. Yet upon reviewing the sacrifice I made, & the en-
deavors that have only ruined myself without benefiting the Public, I cannot
think I have done more than my duty, or if I were again placed in the path of
brilliant prospects, which I quitted that I could hesitate to make the same
sacrifice!

Vincit amor Patriae laudumque immensa cupido.

Adieu, A. Lee.

In response to Arthur Lee’s able and exhaustive official paper, the
Continental Congress passed the following resolution: "Resolved, that
Mr. Lee be further informed, in answered to his letter, that there is no
particular charge against him before Congress, properly supported; and
that he be assured his recall was not intended to affix any kind of cen-
sure on his character, or on his conduct abroad."

Meantime, at Shippen House a family reunion was held to welcome
Arthur home. His family and friends rejoiced in his return and took
up arms in his behalf. Among the many tributes to him is one contained
in a letter from Samuel Adams to Mr. Warren:

Now you tell me their art is to prejudice the people against the Lees, and to
propagate that I am a friend to them. How trifling is this! Am I accountable
to the people for my opinions of men? If I have found from long and intimate
acquaintance with those gentlemen that they are and have been, from the begin-
ning of this contest, among the most able and zealous defenders of the rights
of America and mankind, shall I not be their friend ? I will avow my friend-
ship to them in the face of the world. As an inhabitant of Massachusetts Bay,
I should think myself ungrateful not to esteem Arthur Lee most highly for his
voluntary services to that State, in times of her greatest need, to the injury of
his private interest, and at the risk of his life.

"I am agreeably situated on a Bank commanding the harbour,” Ar-
thur Lee wrote Tom Shippen April 25, 1790, from Urbanna, Virginia.
He goes on to say that the harbor is "now pretty well fill’d with ship-
ping; but there still wants men of Capital here, to make its Commerce
really respectable. A dozen of your richest Quakers would answer our
purpose. Detach them forthwith I beseech you.”

Further excerpts from the unpublished letter show the varied sides of
this Virginian who was among the nation’s first diplomatic representa-
tives:

I received your favor, of the 18th, my dear Tom, with singular pleasure. The
State of Maryland seems not to have thought of any defensive measures. In-
deed I do not well comprehend any foundation for defence. My request, as you
state it, was certainly impracticable; but that arose from the post as I put the
letter in fully in time for the object.

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 177

I shall by no means deem you enthusiastic, in what you say of Mr Madison’s
agreeableness in conversation. I have heard others say the same, & as far as I
have had experience think with you. It is his political conduct which I condemn,
that without being a public knave himself he has always been the supporter of
public knaves, & never, in any one instance has concurred to check, censure, or
controul them — that he has had such vanity as to suppose himself superior to
all other persons, conducting measures without consulting them & intolerant of
all advice or contradiction — that in consequence, he has been dup’d by the
artful management of the rapacious Morris & the intrigueing Marbois. It is
possible he may have thought himself right in all this, but in acquitting his
intention we hazard the credit of his understanding. Something too much of
this.

You feel nothing but mortification & regret, at the absence of This

is one of the pleasing anxieties of Love. Absence & distance are its touchstone.
You will meet again persuaded that you are both more desperately in love than
when you parted. From that moment all doubts & difficulties will vanish, &
you will concur in thinking that prudence cruel which proposes to procrastinate
the completion of your wishes. When once the amiable object of your passion
is so impress’d, it is much if she dont sway the old ones from their prudential
plan. I shall not therefore be surpris’d to hear soon that you are at the summit
of human happiness. Long may it continue so, & may a sober certainty of real
bliss make you think of your accomplished partner as Adam as express’d him-
self of Eve — Yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems
And in herself compleat, so well to know
Her own, that what She wills to do or say
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.

All higher knowledge in her presence falls
Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her
Loses discountenanced or like folly shews
Authority & reason on her wait
As one intended first, not after made
Occasionally; & to consummate all.

Greatness of mind & loveliness their seat
Build in her loveliest, & create an awe
About her, as a gaurd angelic plac’d.

These lines describe the delicious thraldom in which beauty, goodness &
female wisdom can keep the mind of man, or take the imprison’d Soul, & Cap it
Elysium.

I am really griev’d at your account of the Debates. The expectations of men
were extra [illegible]. Their disappointment is proportion’d[ate?]. For my
own part I think the house as wise & eloquent as I expected; knowing that the
members were of the different Assemblies & that there wou’d hardly arise any
thing to elevate the mind or prompt it to extraordinary exertions. Why then
shou’d we expect more from this Assembly than from those of the several
States — unless M. l’Enfant’s elevation of the ceiling may be supposed to elevate
the Disputants. . . .

178 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

In 1781, shortly after Arthur’s return to America and his successful
defense before Congress, he was elected a member of the Virginia As-
sembly and represented Virginia in Congress from 1782 to 1785. On
April 24, 1784, he was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate
treaties with the western Indians, an occupation which he did not relish.
According to Edmund C. Burnett, Arthur Lee had a principal share in
the negotiation of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, October 22, 1784, and
that of Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785. Elected later to the Board of
Treasury, he continued to serve in Congress and also in the Virginia
Flouse of Delegates, until his retirement in 1789. He supported his
brother Richard Henry in opposing the adoption of the Federal Con-
stitution without measures to safeguard civil liberties.

John Adams refers to Arthur Lee as "a man of whom I can not think
without emotion; a man too early in the service of his country to avoid
making a multiplicity of enemies; too honest, upright, faithful and
intrepid to be popular; too often obliged by his principles and feelings
to oppose Machiavellian intrigues, to avoid the destiny he suffered. This
man never had justice done him by his country in his lifetime, and I fear
he never will have by posterity.”

The grant of a tract of land in the province of Maine was given to
Lee "and his heirs forever,” by the State of Massachusetts. Possibly this
gift came through the influence of the Adams family. However, it was
not New England Arthur selected for the home of his latter years, but
the South.

Glimpses of Arthur’s personal life during this period are given in
numerous letters preserved in the Shippen papers. Nancy Shippen writes
much about her uncle in her Journal Book:

My Linde Arthur Lee came to spend the day with me & we spent it very
merrily & happily, in the evening we went accompanied by my fair neighbor to
take a pleasant walk in the fields — we had not walked far when we perceived a
small house at the foot of [the] hill with a little green lawn before the door &
a very little garden on the right hand full of vegetables & a few flowers — the
neatness of the place temped us to walk in where we found a venerable old man
& his wife & dog which made the whole of this poor family the old man was
too old to work, & so the wife who is not much younger gathers wild herbs &
carries them on her head to the market which is five miles from where she lives —
in order to get a living — I asked her what she lived on, she said a little bread
when she could get it, or anything else — in a very hospitable manner she offered
us some of a very brown loaf she had just made; we accepted it because it would
give her pleasure — My uncle laid a piece of silver on their clean wooden table
which the old woman did not perceive till we were going away when she hon-

Arthur Lee: From the original portrait by Charles Willson Peale, now in possession of
the Virginia Historical Society, to whom it was presented by Charles Carter Lee.

180 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

estly offered it to us, thinking it was left by mistake — it was returned to her with
assurances of our good opinion of her — It was late before we got home & we
talk’d much of our little adventure.

Although referring to the regions of Philadelphia as "sober,” Arthur
Lee found much to intrigue him there in the fascinations of the ladies.
Despite his experience in Berlin, Paris, and London, he was curiously
diffident when it came either to "amours” or matrimonial advances at
home. As his letters to Nancy show, he engaged her to make his mar-
riage proposals for him — to successive young ladies! When all failed,
he wistfully resigned himself, at the age of forty-nine, to the permanent
state of single blessedness.

In 1789, Arthur’s brother-in-law, Dr. Shippen, writes to Tom in Lon-
don: "Your Uncle Arthur spent 3 days with us last week on his way to
Virginia to return in 3 weeks. He proposes to resign this year & go to
his farm — is well and wishes to hear of your reception at Ld. Lands-
downs & of your close attention at Westminster Hall.”

After his retirement from public life Arthur returned to Virginia.
The day before he left Shippen House, his sister Alice wrote to her son:

. . . Your dear Uncle will take this to Baltimore & send it by Post, he
sets out tomorrow for Virginia & I must again part with a Brother most
dear to me as such but he is much more so for his many virtues the more
I am with him the more I admire him as the Citizen & the Patriot. After
Serving his Country with Zeal & faithfulness, after Sacrificing himself in de-
tecting the plots of the British Ministry a-gainst us & after a second sacrifice of
himself in discovering the villiany of those in whom we had placed our
confidence he now manifests his disinterestedness in serving us by shewing
the greatest calmness & patience under the ingratitude & injustice with which he
is treated & is continually sugesting & to us the wisest measures [word inde-
cipherable} & wishing the best things for this Country from w.ch he himself has
nothing to expect. He returns to Philadelphia] in the Spring.4 . . .

Arthur bought a plantation in Middlesex County near Urbanna, then
the county seat, and during the eighteenth century one of the busiest
of the Rappahannock ports. Its original seventeenth century name of
Nimcock or Wormeley’s Creek had been changed in 1705 to the city of
Anne — Urbanna — in honor of Queen Anne. The reason Arthur selected
Urbanna as his home is not clear. Possibly it was because certain of his
most congenial friends lived near by: the Wormeleys at Rosegill, the
Grvmes family at Brandon, the Carters at Corotoman.

Lee named his country seat Lansdowne, in memory of his friendship

4Letter from A. Shippen to her son. From original letters loaned the writer by Dr. Lloyd P.
Shippen.

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 181

with Lord Shelburne, Marquis of Lansdowne, and pleasant visits to his
country home in England, Bow-Wood Park.

The house that stands at Urbanna today in the center of the once
carefully kept garden, is of stately Georgian aspect, even with the addi-
tions and changes of the eighteen eighties. If this is the original Lans-
downe House built by Arthur Lee, his fear of "indegence,” of which
he wrote his nephew, was, happily, not realized. Another letter to Tom
Shippen written by Arthur, March 26, 1792, refers to Lansdowne:

... I have been occupied totally with my farm, planning fields, ditches &
enclosures. I have sowed eight acres with clover seed, alone & two with the
addition of plaister of Paris; you shall know the result. I have planted some
hundreds of locust, weeping willows, rose bushes etc. etc. about my house,
which I intend to make a wilderness of sweets. I take to my Farm as naturally
as your little Boy does to his bottle, & am not less fond of it. We shall be in
our infancy when you come to see us in the Summer but very happy in receiving
you.

Thus, Arthur Lee settled down benignly in his "wilderness of sweets,”
evidently glad to take up again the study of botany to which he was
devoted, to farm on a small scale, and to make a home in which to receive
his friends and kinspeople. According to the historian Campbell, Ar-
thur Lee "meditated writing a history of the American Revolution.”
It was difficult for him to readjust his life. Much of the time he was
melancholy and yearned for the delights that once were his when he
lived in London and had a little garden on the Thames. Thoroughly
disillusioned with public life — and politics — as were all of his brothers,
Arthur was content to sow clover seed, plant rose bushes, read his well-
loved French books. For he had at Lansdowne, those cherished French
books and manuscripts he mentions in his will, and many things associ-
ated with his life at European courts: his cloth of silver coverlet and his
"gold enameled Snuff Box set with diamonds,” presented to him by the
King of France through the Comte de Vergennes; his gold sleeve but-
tons "with pictures in them,” his diamond ring, his plate — and his red
and white "China of Sevres.” But he did not long enjoy his quiet re-
treat, for he died on December 12, 1792.

Shortly before Arthur’s death Richard Henry, who had been ill for
several years, resigned from the United States Senate and retired from
all public activities. He returned to Chantilly, never again to leave it, ex-
cept to come after Arthur’s death and probate his will at Urbanna.

After their triumph in the political affairs of the nation, when Rich-
ard Henry and his three younger brothers had reached the full tide of

182

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

their power, the ebb set in. Their opposition to the adoption of the
Federal Constitution created misunderstandings and misinterpretation
of their efforts — and their motives — on all sides. They and many other
patriots with them felt that the right of self-government achieved by the
American Revolution was at stake. Their concern is expressed in a letter
which Richard Henry Lee wrote Patrick Henry September 14, 1789:

The amendments were far short of the wishes of our convention, but as they
are returned by the Senate they are certainly much weakened. The most essential
danger from the present system arises, in my opinion, from its tendency to a
consolidated government instead of a Union of confederated States

In their endeavor to introduce changes while the Constitution was
still before Congress, Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson wrote
on September 28, 1789, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives
of Virginia that they had been unable to effect the changes named in their
instructions as delegates:

Sir,

We have now the honor of enclosing the proposition of Amendments to the
Constitution of the United States that has been finally agreed upon by Con-
gress. We can assure you Sir that nothing on our part has been omitted to pro-
cure the success of those radical Amendments proposed by the Convention, and
approved by the Legislature of our country, which as our Constituent, we shall
always deem it our duty, with respect and reverence to obey. The journal of the
Senate herewith transmitted, will at once shew how exact and how unfortunate
we have been in this business. It is impossible for us not to see the necessary
tendency to consolidated empire in the national operation of the Constitution,
if no further amended than now proposed. And it is equally impossible for
us not to be apprehensive for Civil Liberty, when we know of no instance in the
records of history, that shew a people ruled in freedom when subject to one un-
divided government, and inhabiting a territory so extensive as that of the United
States: And when, as it seems to us, the nature of man and of things join to
prevent it. The impracticability in such case of carrying representation suf-
ficiently near to the people for procuring their confidence and consequent
obedience, compels a resort to fear resulting from great force, and excessive
power in government. Confederated Republics, where the federal hand is not
possessed of absorbing power, may permit the existence of freedom, whilst it
preserves union, strength, and safety. Such amendments therefore, as may
secure against the annihilation of the State governments we devoutly wish to see
adopted.

If a persevering application to Congress from the States that have desired
such amendments should fail of its object, we are disposed to think, reasoning
from causes to effects, that unless a dangerous apathy should invade the public
mind, it will not be many years before a constitutional number of Legislatures
will be found to demand a Convention for the purpose.

We have sent a complete set of the Journals of each house of Congress, and

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 183

thro the appointed channel will be transmitted the Acts that have passed this
Session, in these will be seen the nature and extent of the judiciary, the estimated
expences of the Government, and the means, so far adopted, for defraying the
latter.

We beg Sir to be presented with all duty to the honorable House of Repre-
sentatives, and to assure you that we are, with every sentiment of respect and
esteem

The Lees were convinced that the Constitution pending before Con-
gress endangered the cause of civil liberty to which they had dedicated
their lives. These ideas Richard Henry again voices in a letter to George
Mason of Gunston Hall:

It seems pretty clear at present, that four other states, viz. North Carolina,
New-York, Rhode Island, and New-Hampshire, will depend much upon Vir-
ginia for their determination on the convention project of a new constitution;
therefore it becomes us to be very circumspect and careful about the conduct we
pursue, as, on the one hand, every possible exertion wisdom and firmness
should be employed to prevent danger to civil liberty, so, on the other hand, the
most watchful precaution should take place to prevent the foes of union, order,
and good government, from succeeding so far as to prevent our acceptance of
the good part of the plan proposed.

To Samuel Adams Lee he writes:

But I think that the new constitution (properly amended) as it contains many
good regulations might be admitted. And why may not such indispensable
amendments be proposed by the conventions, and returned with the new plan
to Congress, that a new general convention may so weave them into the prof-
fered system as that a web may be produced fit for freemen to wear?

When the Federal Constitution was before Congress, Lee was its most
outspoken critic and led the forces opposed to its adoption, so long as it
lacked a bill of rights and the other measures his group held essential.
All the strength he had left was concentrated upon the fight to bring to
fruition the ten amendments he with others advocated. In this he was
successful. In speaking of his stand he wrote Tom Shippen on February
5, 1794, from Chantilly:

. . . You are certainly not mistaken in your opinion that I love my Country
- — This passion (if it may be so called) has been deeply engraved upon my
mind soon after it became capable of reflection — And perhaps it may be owing
to this love of my country with opportunities of knowledge furnished by long
& attentive public service together with that period of life when Confidence is
a plant of slow growth; that I politically differ from some persons whose opin-
ion on any other occasion would command the most respectful attention. . . . 5

During the time Richard Henry Lee was in the United States Senate

5Shippen Papers, Vol. II, Library of Congress. This letter has not been collated with the
original.

Signature sheet of the Treaty of Alliance between the United States and France, signed February 6, 1778.

186 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

(March 4, 1789-October 8, 1792) he served on innumerable committees
and took a most active part in helping to build the government.

A few of the outstanding reports made by him in the First Congress
are: On the time, place and manner of inauguration of the President;
On the proper title for the President of the United States (Recommends
that the President be addressed as "His Highness, the President of the
United States of America, and Protector of their Liberties”); On the
establishment of judiciary (he reported the bill to establish courts) ;
On the bill for making further provision for payment of debts of the
United States; On the public debt (Recommending duties to be levied
on imports; list of articles and amount of duties to be levied on each),
and On allowing pensions to persons disabled in the service of the
United States.6

Richard Henry Lee was at the head of the committee to which was
committed the bill "An act to enable the officers and soldiers of the
Virginia line, on continental establishment, to obtain titles to certain
lands lying northwest of the river Ohio, between the Little Miami and
Sciota.” On July 21, 1790, he reported the bill without amendment.7

Richard Henry Lee had an important share in the creation of that
great instrument of government, the Northwest Ordinance.

Besides Lee’s service as a member of Congress, Virginia Assemblyman, Presi-
dent of Congress, and first United States Senator from Virginia during this
period so important in American political and constitutional development, he
maintained a correspondence still more extensive apparently than before. He
added some threescore persons, many of whom were conspicuous in home and
foreign affairs, to the ten or more prominent public men he had retained from
among the correspondents of the earlier time.

The letters disclose the inner workings of Congress and abundantly show
Lee’s continued devotion to the cause of independence and to the union of the
states under the Confederation, for both of which he had moved in Congress
in 1776. Even while in the Virginia Assembly he kept national ends in mind,
and like Jefferson, had a vision of the West. He pressed his state for a cession
of her claims to the lands beyond the Ohio that Maryland might accede to the
Union and that there might be a national domain from which new states could
be created.8

To the political complications of the late seventeen-eighties were
added in the next decade the beginnings of American diplomatic dif-
ficulties. Friendship with France was imperilled by the Revolution of

“The complete list of Richard Henry Lee’s Reports, with a brief digest and analysis, has
been compiled by Dr. Hugh Morrison of the Library of Congress.

7Senate Journal, July 21, 22, 1790.

sLetters of Richard Henry Lee, Vol. 2, by James Curtis Ballagh. By permission of The Mac-
millan Company, publishers.

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 187

1793. Washington’s stand against alliance with a France in chaos and
the clamor leading to Genet’s recall; the strained relations with England
and the ugly machinations of the Jay Treaty, which bridged with cob-
webs the widening chasm between the United States and Europe, brought
profound disillusionment to the patriots of 1776. "Politics is the science
of fraud,” Richard Henry said to Tom Shippen. "The world seems
crazy,” Frank Lee said in a letter from Williamsburg early in this decade,
"and we old people must scuffle with it, as well as we can, for our few
days of existence.”

"We old people!” What a strange phrase for the Stratford Lees who
had so short a time ago been the young leaders of a young nation!

For them indeed the tide was going out.

On March 8, 1794, Richard Henry Lee wrote to the President of his
increasing infirmities and received Washington’s affectionate good
wishes for his friend’s return to health:

I learn with regret that your health has continued bad ever since I had the
pleasure of seeing you at Shuter’s Hill. Warm weather, I hope, will restore it.
If my wishes could be of any avail, you assuredly would have them.”

Spring came to Chantilly with the narcissi which bloom there as in
no other spot on the Potomac cliffs. But it brought no comfort to the
master of the house. On the twenty-fourth day of June he died and was
buried beside his first wife, his parents, and grandparents in Burnt
House Fields.

Today, in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on either side of the door
leading into the room in which the Declaration of Independence was
signed, is a tablet. The one on the right commemorates the services of
George Washington; that on the left, those of Richard Henry Lee. Thus
appear, linked together before the threshold in America’s greatest public
shrine, the names of two men born in the Colony of Virginia in the same
year, on neighboring plantations — friends throughout their lives and co-
workers in the cause for independence.

i i i i

At the time Richard Henry died, his brother William, at Green Spring
was ill, despondent, and growing blind. He had been back in Virginia
for about ten years; but his health was broken when he came home
from the ruin of his place and fortunes abroad, shortly after the Revo-
lution. In America however, he had a half of the vast Berkeley and Lud-
well estates which had come to him by marriage. At first he made his

“March, 1933, Magazine of the Society of the Lees of Virginia, p. 74.

The site of Chantilly-on-the-Potomac, home of Richard Henry Lee.

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 189

home in the old Castle built by Governor Berkeley one hundred and
forty years before.

It had been the birthplace and early home of his wife, Hannah Philippa
Lee. But as she was preparing to return to it, she died suddenly at
Ostend and was buried in Bow Church, London, beside her father and
her great-grandfather, the first Philip Ludwell. Her two daughters,
Portia and Cornelia, came to live with their father and brother at Green
Spring.

William Lee engaged Benjamin Latrobe to design a new house on
rising ground at the rear of the Castle, which was in a ruinous condition,
unfit for habitation, and he tore down the old historic structure.

A letter from Frank Lee about this time throws light on the situation
of both brothers:

Menokin, 30 April, 1795. My Dear Brother [William]: I can readily con-
ceive, and it is with very great concern, the distressed situation you must be in;
and it gives me pain when I reflect how little it is in my power to assist you.
Mrs. Lee and myself are little fitted for the fatigues of travelling; she, thank
God! seems recovering from her long ill state of health; but I have no reason
to expect otherways than a regular decline of the small portion of bodily powers
that I at present possess; for the last twelve months, I feel the decline very
sensibly. Were we ourselves in a proper situation we have at present no con-
veniency for travelling.

I can’t but still flatter myself that the good weather of May will enable you
to bear easy travelling, which would probably contribute much to restore you to
a tolerable state of health. As to worldly matters, I think you should make
your mind easy on that score; you will at all events leave a sufficiency to your
children, to make them happy, unless they are much wanting to themselves; in
which case millions would be insufficient.

It gives me comfort that there is a prospect of procuring you a housekeeper,
who will remove many of your domestic inconveniences. Mr. Aylett Lee is
seriously very confident that he can procure one against whom there is no ob-
jection; but that she is high spirited and keeps very strict hand upon the servants;
the excess of which may, I think, with a little prudence be qualified; tho’ a
Scotch woman, he says, from particular acquaintance, he knows her to be very
cleanly. He has just left us for the district court at Fredericksburg, where he
is to make the necessary inquiries, settle matters and write you by post.

I am so very little in the world and find it so impossible to get anybody to do
any business for me, that I am obliged to have recourse to Mr. Wilson for a
bill for Mr. Thorp; but I have reason to hope it will not fail a second time. The
world seems crazy, and we old people must scuffle with it, as well as we can,
for our few days of existence. With the warmest wishes that you may recover a
better state of health, I am, my dear Brother, yours most affectionately.

Less than two months later William died, June 27, 1795, and was

190 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

buried in the churchyard at Jamestown Island. His daughters were en-
trusted to the guardianship of Frank and Becky Lee. In his will, William
freed all of his slaves and provided for them. The library at Green
Spring he bequeathed to Bishop Madison.

Francis Lightfoot Lee was now the last survivor of the famous broth-
ers. Years before they withdrew from public life, he had sought to
retire from politics and had finally succeeded. At Menokin there was
peace. Two years later, in the winter of 1797, the end came for Frank
and his beloved wife, Rebecca. On January 25 of this year, Tom Ship-
pen wrote from Williamsburg to his parents in Philadelphia:

My poor uncle Frank has paid his last debt to nature, following Mrs Lee
who went a few days before him. I have no doubt but her death hastened his,
as her constant attendance upon him is said to have occasioned the illness which
proved fatal to her.

William L Lee has in consequence of these two unexpected deaths sent here
for a chariot to bring his sisters who both lived at Menoken to Green Spring
where they will live henceforward in all probability with him. . . .

. . . Love to all friends my dear Mother last of the Stratford Lees in par-
ticular.

Yours always and ever ye same

Th: L: Shippen

Thus passed the last of the patriot brothers. Philip had died at the time
when the first shot of the Revolution was heard round the world;
Thomas Ludwell, at the moment the light of help from France streamed
over America’s dark horizon, light that his brother Arthur helped to
bring.

Arthur, Richard Henry, William, and Frank died in the space of five
years, between 1792 and 1797. Of all the family, but one remained — the
youngest sister, Alice Lee Shippen. She, alone, of this generation of the
Stratford Lees, was to live into the new century.

i i i i

The public services of the Lees of Stratford are impressively set forth
in the county, state, and national documents initiated, composed and
directed by them. They begin with the Treaty of Lancaster, initiated and
brought to a successful conclusion by Thomas Lee in 1744. The second
papers of import to the Thirteen Colonies came twenty years later, the
Address to the King and the Memorial to the House of Lords, drawn by
Richard Henry Lee. They were his first public productions.

The Westmoreland Resolves, initiated by Thomas Ludwell Lee and
adopted at Leedstown in 1766, were drafted by Richard Henry, and
signed by the four brothers and two of their Lee cousins. For more than

VINCIT AMOR PATRIAE LAUDUMQUE IMMENSA CUPIDO 191

fifty years the original document was among the historic papers kept at
Stratford Hall.

The Westmoreland Resolutions of 1774 and of 1775 were drawn up
by Richard Henry Lee. In the latter year he wrote his Address to the
People of Great Britain and signed the Olive Branch Petition, which,
through his brother Arthur, was presented to the King.

Then came the Lee Resolution, a pivotal document in the nation’s
history, offered by Richard Henry Lee in the Continental Congress, June
7, 1776, adopted July 2, and ratified July 4 in the form of the Declaration
of Independence, signed by Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee.

Arthur Lee was one of the four makers and signers of the document
recording the first public recognition of the independence of the United
States by a foreign power — the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and
Alliance eventual and defensive between the United States and France —
negotiated in Paris and signed there, February 6, 1778.

In chronological order these documents are:

1744: The Lancaster Treaty.

1764: Address to the King.

1764: Memorial to the House of Lords.

1766: The Westmoreland Resolves or The Leedstown Resolutions.

1774: The Westmoreland Resolutions of ’74.

1775: The Westmoreland Resolutions of ’75.

1775 : Address to the People of Great Britain.

1775: The Olive Branch Petition.

1776: The Lee Resolution for Independence.

1776: The Declaration of Independence.

1778: Treaty of Alliance with France.

1787: The Tenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.

CHAPTER IX: ALICE LEE: MISTRESS OF SHIPPEN HOUSE

ALICE LEE SHIPPEN had a definite part in the lives of her patriot
brothers throughout the period of their most active public serv-
* ice. It was the part of Martha; but it had a special significance
and use, for Alice made a home in Philadelphia for her brothers. Her
house became theirs. All that she and her husband, Dr. William Shippen,
Jr., had was freely shared with her kinspeople and their Virginia com-
patriots. At a time when most of the taverns in the capital city of the
United Colonies were practically uninhabitable and the food disastrous
to taste and health alike, Shippen House provided a dwelling place with
every charm and comfort and a never failing welcome for Richard
Henry and Frank, their families and their friends, and, later for Arthur
Lee.

During the Revolution Dr. Shippen was Director General of the
Military Hospitals of the Armies of the United States. He thus shared
with his wife and her family their devotion to the cause of Independence.

Although Alice had been a young girl at Stratford when her mother
died in 1749, she was evidently trained in the art of household manage-
ment as her elder sister Hannah was. She attended the Stratford School
with her brothers, Frank and William, and evidently received the same
type of instruction given them. She was well grounded in Latin and the
classics — an exceptional circumstance for girls of that middle eight-
eenth century period. In 1758 Alice acted as one of the godmothers of
Thomas Ludwell Lee, eldest son of Richard Henry and his first wife,
Anne Aylett. The record from the family Bible (of Richard Henry Lee)
is that Thomas "was christened by the Rev. Mr. Charles Ross on the
26th day of November, 1758. His sponsors were the Honourable Philip
Ludwell Lee, Gawen Corbin, Esq., Capt. William Allerton, Miss Alice
Lee, Mr. Allerton and Miss Mary Aylett.”

When, in the spring of 1760, Alice Lee left her birthplace, Stratford
Hall, to sail for England, she had not expected to return to America.
It was one of the strange plays of destiny that she should meet in London
the young Philadelphia medical student, William Shippen, Jr., marry
him, and come back to settle in his own city in a lovely Georgian house
his father built.

In the two years Alice spent in London she probably supplemented her
Virginia experience with many glimpses of the household machinery in
well-ordered homes of her kinsmen and friends established there. For
Shippen House seems to have been managed by Alice Lee with skill
and with the quiet order, beauty, and comfort of an English home. Yet

[192]

ALICE LEE: MISTRESS OE SHIPPEN HOUSE

193

at the same time, it had the elasticity, informality, and charm of the Vir-
ginia household.

George Washington often refers in his diaries and letters to this Phila-
delphia home and family which he visited so frequently. When he came
to Philadelphia as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774,
he "lodg’d” at Shippen House with Richard Henry and Frank Lee. In
1775 he closes a letter to Richard Henry Lee in Philadelphia with re-
spectful compliments to "the good family you are in, your brother, See.
I remain, dear sir, Your most affectionate humble serv’t. . . . P.S. Tell
Doctor B [W.j Shippen, that I was in hopes that his business would
have permitted him to come here [as] director of the hospital.” Another
message comes from the camp at Cambridge, "... with sincere regard,
for my fellow labourers with you, Doctor Shippen’s family, &c. I am,
dear Sir, your most affectionate serv’t. ...” On April 4, 1776, the gen-
eral writes Lee: "I pray you to make my best wishes acceptable to the
good doctor, his lady, and family, Sec.”1

Only during the British occupation when Dr. Shippen was in the field,
Alice a refugee, and the children at boarding school were the hospitable
doors of Shippen House closed.

Among the many acknowledgments for courtesies given by the Ship-
pen family to the Lees, this excerpt from one of Frank’s letters to Tom
Shippen expresses their feeling:

Menokin

April 25, 1795

. . . Tell my dear friend your father, that I never cease to feel the most af-
fectionate gratitude for his many kindnesses to us during our stay in Philadel-
phia, and it is with regret that 1 now begin to despair of ever seeing him in this
Country to make all the returns in my power. May he live to build many more
houses & enjoy every comfort in them, interrupt for a moment my Sister’s
happy occupations with her little people, by reminding her of my affection. Mfs
Lee joins me in most ardent wishes for your perfect recovery and love to Mrs
Shippen & the little ones, believe me, as I am

Yr most affe friend
F. L. Lee

At the time of the seventeen-fifties when Shippen House was built, on
the corner of South Fourth and Locust Streets, the section was Philadel-
phia’s "Court End” — the fashionable quarter of the city. Some years
later Independence Hall arose within a short distance of this northern
headquarters of so many of the Virginians.

An evening described by Dr. Shippen in a letter dated January 23,

1Lee, Memoir of R. H. Lee, II, 7, 5, 11

194 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

1797, is typical of many gatherings at Shippen House in the last third of
the eighteenth century:

My dear Son —

Yesterday Mr. Jefferson sat on my right & Mr Pinckney on my left hand —
Gen1 Gunn was opposite to me his right & left were supported by your friends
Rutledge & Dr. Jones the middle collumn consisted of R. B. Lee Mr. Collins
Charles Lee, Gen. V. Cortland, senator Langdon Dr. Wistar — Majr. Burrows
& Dr Blair ask’d a blessing.— Aristocrats & democrats a very sociable party —
Jefferson was great & Mr. Pinckney rose much in my good opinion as a man of
sense tho oppos’d by ye vice-president. Your mother gave us one of her old
dinners, they sat till 8 oClock. . . .

The Congress are very busy & warm in determining whether they are obliged
to support all the foreign ministers the President chooses to appoint — Brent
made a very elegant & strong speech against it yesterday. Rutledge praised it
much. Gallatin has shone too — I will send them by the first vessel. . . .

Around the lives of Alice Lee and William Shippen and their two
children, Nancy and Tommy, revolved many historic and dramatic epi-
sodes connected with Stratford and the Lees. From old diaries and fam-
ily letters a clear picture is given of Alice Lee and the daily life at
Shippen House. Where John Adams speaks of her as "a Religious and
Reasoning Lady,” Martha Bland (Mrs. Theodoric Bland of Cawsons,
Virginia) finds her "gay and agreeable.” Nancy Shippen (Mrs. Henry
Beekman Livingston) writes in her Journal Book that her mother "is a
woman of strong sense, & has a Masculine understanding; a generous
heart, & a great share of sensibility.” J. B. Cutting paid his tribute to her
in September, 1791, when he wrote Tom: "Forget not I beseech you, to
express to your best of mothers my just sense of her extraordinary
strength of mind, that is only exceeded by the strength of the affections
of her heart — Never was there a [mjother of more fortitude, or more
maternal fondness!”

Alice Lee’s great-niece, Lucy Grymes Lee (Mrs. Bernard M. Carter),
was on intimate terms with her always and often thanked "Aunt Shippen
in behalf of Her two daughters Josephine & Matilda” for various gifts.
One note "for the pretty necklaces you sent them by their dear Papa and
with their Mother will ever fondly cherish the remembrance of your
affection & kind attentions. ...”

Through the hard years of the Revolution when Alice was separated
so long from her husband and children, especially during the time when
she was at Stratford, her anxious care for her family never faltered.

On January 17, 1778, she wrote her husband from Stratford:

. . . it is now two months since I parted with our dear our only son, the

ALICE LEE: MISTRESS OF SHIPPEN HOUSE

195

pledge of our love & have not heard once from him — surely if he was well he
wou’d contrive a letter to me, he is certainly ill or dead of that vile feaver Crags
son had, my fears render me so miserable it is impossible for me to stay here
where I find I cannot hear from those I love most. I shall return to Frederick-
Town where you must my dear Mr Shippen get a lodging for me. . . .

. . . tell me if you think our dear Girl improves by being with Mrs Rogers.
I don’t think she improves in her writing, I mean the manner & pray don’t let
her wear a ribbon on her shoulders it will certainly make her crooked. . . .

After the Shippens had returned to their home in Philadelphia, Tom’s
education was a matter of great concern to his mother, as this letter to
him at William and Mary shows:

Philadelphia 20 November 1783

I have received your dear welcome letter & thank you for it. . . . Tis with
difficulty I can support your absence but I have long learnt to prefer your inter-
est to mine. I comfort myself that you are receiving instruction under the most
able professors among yr friends & relations. Give my love to them particularly
yr Uncle William. Tell him I congratulate him on his arrival in his Native
country where I wish he may long be happy & usefull.

Have you seen a Pamphlet publish’d in Virginia on the injustice of our paying
British debts? Ask yr. Uncle if he has seen it & wh he woul’d think if he were
told yh we were obliged to give this up because we cT not carry on the war any
longer for want of money. Charles Thomson gives your Uncle Arthur all the
credit for the removal of Congress from Philadelphia; at another time he
wou’d not alow him the honor of having so much influence.

Present my compliments to Mrs. Wythe Nelson & Beal & tell them I shall
never forget their politeness to you & will be very happy to execute any of their
commands here. Your friend Holingsworth is very polite to me & all your ac-
quaintances appear to be very much interested in your welfare. Your Uncle has
left us & I am very much concern’d that it was so little in our power to take
proper notice of him. If my love for you cou’d be encreasd your attention to
him wou’d have encreased it. I feel your separation from me every day more
sensibly, every apartment reminds me of you. I look at the chair where you
used to sit & remember with the most tender affection how you made me forget
the hours of sickness by some well read history or pleasing conversation. It
pleased because it was to the advantage of every one you spoke of. I must see
you in the Spring but you must tell me how long your vacancy will last. I am
very glad yr. Papa has got the money for you. I hope he will always have
enough for you to exercise your humanity as well to carry on yr studies & I am
happy in the consideration that vou may be trusted, that you will not be extrava-
gant & I know you are not covetous. . . .

My darling son you have turn’d vour thots to a particular profession but I
wish you to consider all its duties, all its advantages & disadvantages, then de-
termine & always remember mv dear son that you are a candidate for eternity
& carefully guard against every thing that you find by experience interferes with
that grand object. Carefully watch over your heart for that is the source of good

196

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

& evil in yourself. Bring it every day to the dear Redeemer to be renew’d.
Acquaint yourself well with the doctrines of Grace & the liberty of Man & as
the mind wants daily nurishment as well as the body, make it an invariable rule
to read some pious author especially the holy Scriptures. Nothing can be above
their sublemnity; their subject is God, their precepts are perfect, their stories
the most interesting, and their examples most shining. I wou’d particularly
recommend the Psalms & the book of Job. How high are his tho’ts of God!
How pathetic are his writings! & as you have increased my happiness here
increase it tenfold hereafter by leting me spend a happy eternity with my
darling Child. I write as if this were in your own power & so far it is. The
means certainly are & a diligent use of them are inseperably connected with the
end.

Yr. Father & Sister have given you the news of this world. Give me leave to
remind you of the most joyful news from heaven. Jesus Christ is come into the
world to save Sinners, In this our hearts shou’d rejoice continually. Never dis-
pute on religion. I know it will answer no good purpose. Remember to men-
tion yr. friends Washington, Buchanan, Walker Ac in yr. letters. All love to be
remembered. I am with all my heart

Yr Affb Mother

A. L. Shippen.2

Her affection for Tom was profound:

"I shall think every minute an hour & every hour a day Until I see
you,” she exclaims. "I shall long for the spring as much as the weary for
rest or the fainting for Strength, & do you my dear make the best use of
your time & answer my highest expectations of your improvement gratifie
my highest wish.”

Another time Alice writes:

... we are now enjoying the sweets of private life & only want you to add
to the cheerfulness of our fire-side — What are you studying my dear Son do you
ever turn your tho’ts to the grand Object for which you came into being? remem-
ber as far as I have an interest in you I have devoted you to serve in the Church
I beseech you offer yourself to God & beg he will send you forth to labour in
His Vineard where you will not meet with the reward of this world wch. y[s]
often a sting, a bate at best, but your reward will be certain & everlasting,
remember the heart felt speach of Cardenal Wolsey had I said he in the
biterness of his Soul, served my God with half the Zeal I’ve served my King,
He wou’d not thus have left me in my old age &c. — God bless my dear Son &
lead him in the Way everlasting — I am with much affection A the most ardent
desire for your Eternal happiness —

Your Mother

A. Shippen

Thus Alice shared her most intimate feelings with her son. Her love
of the country is particularly expressed, for, having spent her childhood

20riginal letter from Alice Shippen. From Shippen Papers.

ALICE LEE: MISTRESS OF SHIPPEN HOUSE

197

at Stratford, she was never satisfied with city life. One April she wrote
Tom:

Farley begins to look gay the herds are [ ?] the flocks are bleating and the
Lambs are frisking about two little calves add to the scene and they all look
better than ever I saw these Creatures at this time of the year notwithstanding
the bitter cold we have had.

Continuous financial sacrifices were made by Alice Shippen and her
husband at home to provide the sort of training which they both coveted
for their gifted, though somewhat irresponsible, son. Alice made several
fruitless efforts to bring Tom to a realization of the facts:

. .1 have sent yr. Hat & money for yr expences & wT send a man
& horse if it was in my power but you can come with the other young
Gentlemen of this place & all expences must be saved now. ...”

In later years when her son and daughter were married she lavished on
their children the same love and care. Nancy says in her journal her
mother "spent [a] great part of the morning in my Chamber with me —
directing & advising me about bringing up my sweet Child — I need it
much — for sure I am a very young & inexperienced Mother.” Again she
says of her mother: "I always find myself improved after having heard
her talk.”

Tom Shippen’s references to his mother in his diaries when he had
children of his own, give a charming picture of Alice Lee and her grand-
children:

My mother makes us a second visit with Traveller in the chair. As usual she
overflows with kindness to us, dines here & returns to town with a fresh horse
in the afternoon. I sup upon a bread & custard pudding made with plums by
my mother for the children. They are sweet little rogues. . . . My mother
leaves in betimes: William wakes up, misses her and roars like a bull at her
loss and at the clandestine manner in which he conceived himself to have [been]
run away from and deserted by his best friend. Monday. My mother and old
John arrive and at 5, J B C on horseback who was to have escorted my mother.
She brings the long expected box of English shoes for Betsy — 3 dozen pair —
and Mrs Livingston & Miss Swift get out on their way home from Mr Bache’s
to look at and admire the inimitable shoes. Betsy is ravished, the ladies only
pleased — sattin, queen’s silk, jean (?), Spanish leather, embroidered leather —
Lord [ ?] what a display of shoes! — a nice supper of roasted partridges roasted
potatoes & oysters crown the day. . . .

From her letters it is evident that Alice’s interests were not limited to
her family alone. She sent Tom the pamphlet published in Virginia on
the injustice of America’s paying British debts. Yet patriot though she
was, she had ever a tender feeling for England. "England is not entirely
to blame!” she says at one time to her daughter. Another time she ex-

198

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

presses herself thus: "I feel I love in my very heart the true liberty of
America the liberty of saying & doing everything that is beautiful &
proper.” With intelligent and affectionate interest she followed the
career of young Tom Shippen, Jr., at Princeton. "Little” Tom used
Latin phrases frequently in his letters to his grandmother.

But Alice Lee was primarily wife and mother, and the mistress of a
house that dispensed hospitality and cheer to the patriots of many col-
onies during the darkest days of the war.

She outlived all her family of Stratford, including her husband, her
son, and her favorite grandson. Finances continued at low ebb. No
longer did Alice have her own home but kept changing her places of
habitation in Philadelphia and its environs. During her last sad years
she was not only estranged from her daughter but also became totally
blind. She died in her eighty-first year and was buried in the graveyard
in Arch Street, Philadelphia, beside the body of her husband.

According to a penciled notation in the family records, dated June 4,
1836, Nancy Shippen is supposed to have written the inscription on her
parents’ tombstone:

In memory of
Dr. William Shippen
who departed this life
July 11, 1808, in his 7 3rd year.

He was Father & founder of the
Medical School
In this City.

at which he presided with honor near 50 years, he was a Friend of virtue & re-
ligious, a protector of the poor, & when he fulfilled the duties of his profession,
in which he was very eminent, humanity and goodness ivere attending. As a
husband, father, master, brother, friend he shone conspicuously & his affability,
urbanity, & charity were so great that all must conspire to a tribute of love &
sorrow.

Here also lies

with six of the infant children, his wife,

Alice Lee Shippen
daughter of Col. Lee of V a.

who died March 25th 181 7, in the 85th [81 st~] year of her age
Endowed with great talents, she was also a liberal
friend of the poor & a
Sincere Christian

Hark the trumpet sounds & the tombs burst,

Awake, arise, the Saviour of the world calls,

He triumphs & eternity opens.

The empire of death is at an end

Here, O GOD are we & the children thou hast given us.

CHAPTER X: HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

NEVER, perhaps, were two sisters more unlike in temperament
and in the situation and condition of their lives than Alice and
Hannah Lee. Aside from her world of household affairs and
the nursery where she was her own mistress, Alice was completely sub-
ordinated to her husband: curiously dependent upon his will and de-
cision. She bowed to custom and conventionality as if they were in
themselves a sort of religion which could not be questioned. Hannah,
on the other hand, was an individualist. She was independent, resolute,
unconventional, and courageous. The strange drama and romance that
unfolded in her life set her apart from other women of her time. They
make her a figure of striking interest.

Hannah Lee was the first daughter and third child of Thomas and
Hannah Ludwell Lee. Born at Matholic in 1728, her earliest recollec-
tions were of Stratford, where the family moved when Hannah was two
or three years old. She passed her most impressionable years in singular-
ly harmonious and happy surroundings and had the opportunity for
personal companionship with her father when she was growing up as
few of his younger children had. From his library she acquired an
interest in books that was to last throughout her life. Most probably she
received from her mother careful instruction in household management
and arts and crafts. Hannah bound a series of books, one of which is
extant, and occasionally made a piece of furniture with her own hands.

From the emphasis then placed on religious instruction for young
women and also from the many ecclesiastical books in the Stratford
library, Hannah developed the profoundly religious turn of mind that
was a characteristic of her entire life. The handmade Book of Sermons ,
given by her descendants1 to the present-day Stratford library, is one
of four volumes of religious discourses and commentaries, which, ac-
cording to family tradition, Hannah compiled and bound stoutly in
pigskin, when she was still a young girl. These volumes went with her
from Stratford when she married Gawen Corbin of Peckatone, Gentle-
man Justice of Westmoreland County, a member of the House of Bur-
gesses, and later of the Council.

Hannah’s wedding was the only one to take place at Stratford in her
parents’ lifetime. Her marriage strengthened the relationship already
existing between the Corbins and the Lees through Hannah’s grand-

'Presented to Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation by Miss Mary Lee Murphy and R. Staf-
ford Murphy, direct descendants of Hannah Lee Corbin through her daughter, Martha Corbin
Turberville.

[199]

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Excerpt of original letter from Hannah Lee Corbin to her sister, Alice.

202

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

mother, Laetitia. Furthermore, from the point of view of Hannah’s
parents, it seemed to promise permanent financial security for their
daughter. Love was not always considered essential to marriage in the
eighteenth century.

Peckatone Plantation, Hannah’s new home, was only twenty miles
from Stratford; but communication does not appear to have been fre-
quent. Like Stratford and Chantilly, Peckatone was on the Potomac,
but, unlike them, it was close beside the water. The house was one of
the old landmarks of lower Westmoreland County, dating back to the
earliest river settlement in that region.

In 1664 the plantation was in the possession of Henry Corbin, one of
the Old Standers, father of Laetitia, who married the second Richard
Lee, and of Frances, who married Edmund Jenings, Governor of the
Colony. The mansion with its surrounding village of outbuildings was
built by Corbin and inherited by his grandson, Gawen Corbin. Here it
was that Hannah Lee came as a bride, from Stratford, in 1748.

Peckatone in 1787 is described by Hannah’s niece, Lucinda Lee, in her
journal of a Young Lady of Virginia as a beautiful situation with gar-
dens extending from the house to the river: "I have been takeing a very
agreeable walk there,” she says. She refers to the peach orchard where
she "eat a great many fine peaches.”

The house was standing in its original grandeur until 1886, when it
was destroyed by fire.-' In an article from The Baltimorean written some
forty years ago, the Rev. G. W. Beale describes this seventeenth century
house which was Hannah Corbin’s home after she left Stratford:

It was a spacious and massive quadrangular building, composed of . . .
bricks with immense halls and wainscotted rooms, after the elaborate fashion
of the better class of colonial houses of the 17th century. A wide platform,
reached by broad flights of stone steps, in front and rear, supplied the place of
porches, and offered a pleasing view of far extending lawn and fields on one
side; and on the other the river gleaming through the intervening yard-trees. A
wall extended from one corner of the main building to a brick kitchen and
servants’ rooms; and on the opposite side, but more distant, stood the spacious

2Thomas Tileston Waterman says in a letter to the author, April 13, 1936: “As the ruins of
Peckatone stood, subsequent to the fire [of 1886], they showed a building of the first importance
in Virginia domestic architecture. It was in the style of Cleve. nearby, also now destroyed, but
lacked the rich stone trim which distinguished the latter building. Peckatone was rectangular,
probably about 40 by 70 feet, and surmounted by a hipped roof. The roof was pierced at the
ends of the horizontal ridge by two great chimney stacks. The building was built of brick laid
in Flemish bond with gauged brick flat arches, base and strong cores. The doorway was flanked
by three windows on either side. The same proportion of openings was observed here as at
Cleve, namely, the lower windows definitely dominated the upper ones by their great height, in
contrast to the comparative shortness of the latter windows. It is probable that Peckatone
in its heyday was one of the most satisfactory of all the 18th century Virginia domestic designs.
It had breadth, simplicity, and grace.”

View of the Stratford gardens through English beeches.

204 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

brick stable. Extensive enclosed grounds, surrounded the mansion, and these
were adorned with many noble shade trees, a rich green sward, and gravelled
walks.

Hannah’s life as mistress of Peckatone comprised the same homely
duties as her mother’s at Stratford. But apparently she had her father’s
love of books and some of his interest in public affairs. Her literary
judgment seems to have been valued by the men of her family. In a
letter of January, 1765, to her cousin, Squire Lee of Lee Hall, Hannah
shows the two sides of her life in amusing juxtaposition:

Dear Sir

I shall send tomorrow for the Hogs you so kindly promiss me, And as Adam
is not engaged now you are extremely Wellcome to him for whatever time you
want him.

I inclose the address, it pleases me better than the others. My best wishes are
ever with you as I am

Dear Sir

Your affece cousin, &

Hble servk

Hannah Corbin.

Probably Hannah did not have the leisure or opportunity for wide
reading, but she continued to be absorbed in religious books.

According to Bishop Meade, conditions in a number of the parishes of
the Established Church in Virginia were then deplorable. Many of the
clergy spent their time in card-playing, cock-fighting, rum-drinking, and
horse-racing rather than in attending to their parish duties. The reli-
gious life of the poorer classes of people — the tenant farmers, inden-
tured servants and slaves — was ignored in a number of parishes.

About the year 1760 the Reverend David Thomas came to Virginia
from Pennsylvania. He was an apostle of a new cult, that of the pioneer
Baptist Society. It appealed particularly to the very people the Estab-
lished Church did not reach and also to many devout members of the
English Church who did not approve of the lax conditions then so
prevalent. Elder Thomas traveled through the lower counties of the
Northern Neck "to propagate the pure principles of Christianity.” Ac-
cording to Semple’s History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in
Virginia, he was "a burning and shining light”; and people went many
miles to hear him preach. "When they arrived and heard the Gospel, it
proved a sweet savor of life. They returned home; God built them up by
His Spirit, and in a short time they . . . offered an experience of grace
to the church, and were baptized. . . .” In the Northern Neck, Elder
Thomas preached to large audiences. It seems likely that Hannah Corbin

HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

205

heard him, that she joined perhaps with the very listener who cried, "O,
that I may never forget that sweet sermon — a message from God to me
that day!”

Hannah left the Church of England and entered the Baptist Society.
She refused henceforth to attend services at the Established Church and
was accordingly presented to the Grand Jury: "May 29, 1764: Hannah
Ludwell Corbin for not appearing at her parish Church, for six months
past,” runs the court record on page 125 in the book of Court Orders
of Westmoreland.

To her sister Alice, Hannah wrote: "I am not surprised that you seem
to have a mean Opinion of the Babtist religion 1 believe most people that
are not of that Profession are perswaded we are either Enthusiasts or
Hypocrites. But my dear Sister the followers of the Lamb have been
ever esteemed so, this is our Comfort And that we know in whom we
have believed.”

The great revivals which were to stir all Virginia before the end of
the eighteenth century were then commencing. "The day-star began to
dawn.” Like Lewis Lunsford, who came after him, Elder Thomas was
"a noble champion of religious liberty” and was held in high esteem by
Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, both of whom he highly valued as
"friends of Liberty.”

The shocking persecutions heaped at first upon this brave minister
and other early missionaries of the Baptist faith in Virginia, the starva-
tion, beatings, imprisonment and martyrdom they suffered in a number
of counties because of their faith — fanned to white heat the devotion
of their followers, the masses of the people. The movement reached the
wealthy planters as well. Mrs. Elizabeth Steptoe, later the mother-in-law
of Philip Ludwell Lee, became a devout convert to the new religion.
As Semple records, she was "a lady of the first rank both as to family
and fortune,” and lived in great state near Westmoreland Courthouse.
Another Baptist convert of wealth and importance in Westmoreland
was Councillor Carter of Nominy Hall. He built a little church at
Nominy for the Baptist missionaries and for a period of several years
was one of their strongest moral and financial supporters in the North-
ern Neck.

However, the general reaction of the neighborhood against the Baptist
influence is voiced by Fithian:

Sunday, March 6. Mr. Lane the other Day informed me that the Anabaptists
in Louden County are growing very numerous; and seem to be encreasing in
affluence; and as he thinks quite destroying pleasure in the Country; for they

206

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

encourage ardent Pray’r; strong and constant faith, and an intire Banishment
of Gaming, Dancing, and Sabbath-Day Diversions. I have also before under-
stood that they are numerous in many County’s in this Province and are Gener-
ally accounted troublesome. Parson Gibbern ha-s preached several sermons in
opposition to them, in which he has labour’d to convince his people that what
they say are only whimsical Fancies or at most Religion grown to Wildness
and Enthusiasm! . . .

Of the married life of Gawen Corbin and Hannah Lee almost noth-
ing is known. They had but one child, a daughter named Martha. That
the family lived in the comfortable manner of the large planters of their
day is evident from the Peckatone inventories. A "Coach with Harness
for 6 Horses” — and thirteen "Bays” from v/hich to choose the six — the
family portraits, harpsichord, books, maps, mahogany, the heavy silver
plate (the "Ladle” alone of the "Silver Punch Bowl” weighed "3 pounds
and an half”) engraved with the Corbin arms — all this makes an im-
pressive list.

But of the personal relationship of husband and wife there is no
record.

In December, 1759, Gawen Corbin died, leaving Hannah the mistress
of Peckatone. Because of her practical turn of mind, the management
of a large estate was no doubt of great interest to her. But it was also a
trial. Hannah bitterly resented the heavy taxes laid upon her, when she
had no hand in framing the laws. She had, it seemed, all the responsi-
bilities of a rich man with none of his political rights. She was not,
however, concerned for herself alone. Her defense of the legal rights
of widows is manifested in a letter of March 14, 1778, to her sister
Alice: "I have wrote to my Brother [Richard Henry] & I beg you will
use your interest with him to do something for the poor desolate
widows.” Apparently Hannah applied the old catchword of "taxation
without representation” to the status of widows in the Colony. As
owners of property, they had to pay taxes, but they not only had no
voice in determining purposes for which the revenue from taxes was
to be used, but also had no part in the election of those who were
charged with the disbursement of such funds. It must have been a vig-
orous letter, for her brother took the time to write a long reply:

Chantilly, March 17, 1778. 3

My Dear Sister,

Distressed as my mind is and has been by a variety of attentions, I am illy able
by letter to give you the satisfaction I could wish on the several subjects of your
letter. Reasonable as you are and friendly to the freedom and happiness of your
country, I should have no doubt giving you perfect content in a few hours’

Vista from the Great Hall through the west wing, looking toward the old Cliff Road
to the river.

208

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

conversation. You complain that widows are not represented, and that being
temporary possessors of their estate ought not to be liable to the tax. The
doctrine of representation is a large subject, and it is certain that it ought to be
extended as far as wisdom and policy can allow; nor do I see that either of these
forbid widows having property from voting, notwithstanding it has never been
the practice either here or in England. Perhaps ’twas thought rather out of
character for women to press into those tumultuous assemblages of men where
the business of choosing representatives is conducted. And it might also have
been considered as not so necessary, seeing that the representatives themselves,
as their immediate constituents, must suffer the tax imposed in exact proportion
as does all other property taxed, and that, therefore, it could not be supposed
that taxes would be laid where the public good did not demand it. This, then,
is the widow’s security as well as that of the never married women, who have
lands in their own right, for both of whom I have the highest respect, and
would at any time give my consent to establish their right of voting. I am per-
suaded that it would not give them greater security, nor alter the mode of
taxation you complain of ; because the tax idea does not go to the consideration
of perpetual property, but is accomodated to the high prices given for the annual
profits. Thus no more than l/2 per ct. is laid on the assessed value, although
produce sells now 3 and 400 per cent above what it formerly did. Tobacco sold
5 or 6 years ago for 15s and 2d- -now ’tis 50 and 55. A very considerable part
of the property I hold is, like yours, temporary for my life only; yet I see the
propriety of paying my proportion of the tax laid for the protection of property
so long as that property remains in my possession and I derive use and profit
from it. When we complained of British taxation we did so with much reason,
and there is great difference between our case and that of the unrepresented in
this country. The English Parliament nor their representatives would pay a
farthing of the tax they imposed on us but quite otherwise. Their property
would have been exonerated in exact proportion to the burthens they laid on
ours. Oppressions, therefore, without end and taxes without reason or public
necessity would have been our fate had we submitted to British usurpation. For
my part I had much rather leave my children free than in possession of great
nominal wealth, which would infallibly have been the case with all American
possessions had our property been subject to the arbitrary taxation of a British
Parliament. With respect to Mr. Fauntleroy, if he spoke as you say, it is a very
good reason why he ought not to be assessor. But if he should be the law has
wisely provided a remedy against the mistakes or the injustices of assessors
by giving the injured party appeal to the commissioners of the tax, which com-
missioners are annually chosen by the freeholders and housekeepers, and in the
choice of whom you have as legal a right to vote as any other person. I believe
there is no instance in our new government of any unnecessary placemen, and I
know the rule is to make their salaries moderate as possible, and even these
moderate salaries are to pay tax. But should Great Britain gain her point, where
we have one placeman we should have a thousand and pay pounds where we pay
pence; nor should we dare to murmur under pain of military execution. This,

zThe Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Ballagh, Vol. I, pp. 392-394.

HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

209

with the other horrid concomitants of slavery, may well persuade the American
to lose blood and pay taxes also rather than submit to them. . . .

Hannah was probably the first woman in Virginia concerned in wom-
en’s rights, and it is possible that her arguments influenced Richard
Henry Lee’s favorable attitude toward equal suffrage.

Gawen Corbin’s will was the source of many trials to Hannah. By its
terms she would lose a large part of the estate if she married again:

. .1 lend all my Estate both real & personal to my dear Wife during
her Widowhood & Continuance in this Country . . . and if my Wife
marries again or leaves this Country, then & in that Case, my will &
desire is that my said Wife shall be deprived of the Bequest already
made her, and in lieu thereof shall only have one third of my Estate
real and personal. . . .”4

Such a restriction must have chafed so independent a person as Han-
nah, and doubtless seemed entirely unjust to her. From existing corres-
pondence and the notations of G. W. Beale, it would appear that Han-
nah was always interested and active in the business of the plantation
and undoubtedly had assisted her husband in the development of Pecka-
tone and some of his other properties. Now she must order her future
life — and she was only thirty-two — as Gawen Corbin directed or forfeit
two-thirds of the estate to which she had evidently devoted much effort.
Although she was named as executor with her brothers, Richard Henry,
Thomas Ludwell, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, she refused to appear in
court with them in this capacity. The court order books show a fine
imposed upon her for not appearing, one which she apparently refused
to pay.

There was a further complication. One of the witnesses of Corbin’s
will was his physician, Richard Lingan Hall. With him Hannah fell
deeply in love. The few references to Doctor Hall by members of the
Lee family give no due to his personality. He was invariably spoken of
with respect, as an educated man and a social equal, the owner of a small
estate in Richmond County. It is obvious that Richard Hall was a man
of unquestionable integrity.

In the course of time Hannah might well have married him; but the
Baptist Society did not then have its own form for the solemnization of
marriage, using instead the ritual of the Church of England, to which
Hannah did not subscribe. The only marriage ceremony then recog-

4Original (mutilated) in Westmoreland County Courthouse. Contemporary copy of original
document furnished the writer by J. Collins Lee.

210 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

nized by Virginia law was that of the Established Church. Cases fre-
quently occurred, however, especially during the Revolution, where the
marriage ceremony was performed by dissenting ministers, but they
were not valid in law until the act of 1780. 5 There must have been many
instances where members of the early Baptist Society conformed to the
prevailing law covering marriage requirements in order to avoid all
questions of descents. Such records are not available to the writer.

Where Hannah Lee Corbin was concerned, it seems that on this point
she would not compromise. No contemporary statement clarifying her
position survives — if any was ever made. In all legal and public docu-
ments, even in the one referring to her first child born through her union
with Richard Hall, she refers to herself as Hannah Corbin, widow. Was
it — with Hannah — a question of property versus conscience? The exact
reasons are not known. The loss of two-thirds of her husband’s estate
would naturally be a matter of grave concern to Hannah. Dr. Hall’s
property and practice were inadequate for their support, and ever since
Gawen Corbin died Hannah had protested vigorously against what she
evidently felt was the injustice of the will.

Whatever her guiding motive, Hannah determined to dispense with
the marriage ceremony, to live openly with Richard Hall in the house at
Peckatone, and make no apologies for it. For two years her husband
had been dead. She was now thirty-four and she had a spirited determi-
nation to live her life as she saw fit, without let or hindrance from the
body politic or religious. So bold a step could have been taken only by
a woman whose courage and love were great.

Since a second marriage, if performed with a Baptist ceremony, would
probably not have been recognized officially prior to 1780, Hannah may
have seen no reason to take any other steps during her lifetime that
would have deprived her of most of her life interest in the estate, such
as giving her children the name of Hall in connection with transfers of
property made to them during her lifetime.

The fact that some years later, when Hannah made her will, she gave
the name Hall to her son and her younger daughter has some special sig-
nificance. For it may prove to indicate a probable civil or Baptist cere-
mony which may never have been recorded.

Hannah’s relationship with Hall is not referred to by members of her
family in any letters that survive. The devout Alice corresponded fre-

5See Supplementary Records : The Baptist Society in Colonial Virginia.

HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

211

quently with Hannah, and the sisters interchanged visits and were on
friendly and affectionate terms. The scrupulous Richard Henry men-
tions Dr. Hall in a casual and friendly manner in his letter of March 17,
1778 — a letter he addresses to Mrs. Hannah Corbin and closes with:

"I am, My dear Sister,

Most sincerely and affectionately yours.”

The situation was fully accepted by the countryside, according to the
Westmoreland historian, G. W. Beale, who says in an article in The
Baltimorean that during Hannah’s widowhood, Peckatone was fre-
quented "by throngs of the most genial and enlightened society of the
time.” He mentions "richly bound volumes of classical literature” pre-
served in the library there, which "were inscribed with the autographs
of prominent friends and visitors.” For his source references he cites
"Letters and other data preserved from the period of Mrs. Hannah Cor-
bin’s residence.” He continues: "Seldom has a woman been left at her
husband’s decease in possession of a large estate, and the care of a child,
with more independence of spirit and force of character than fell to the
lot of Mrs. Hannah Corbin. She laid a vigorous hand on the affairs of
her plantation and took other business concerns and directed them with
practical sagacity and success.”

For a period of nearly eighteen years — until Richard Hall’s death
— these two lived as man and wife. To their first child, a son born in
the year 1763, Hannah gave the name, Elisha — God is Salvation.

On May 29, 1764, Hannah made a formal "deed of gift” to her son,
publicly recording:

Corbin to Corbin — To all to whom these present shall come Be it known that
I Hannah Corbin, widow of the parish of Cople in the County of Westmore-
land for and in consideration of the natural love and affection which I have
for my Well beloved son Elisha Hall Corbin and for diver other good causes
and considerations have given and granted and by these present do give and
grant the negro slaves following to wit: Phil, Cyrus, Ben, Lubey, Molly, letty,
Betty, Hannah, Nance, Alee, Lucey and Betty together with their several in-
crease in manner as is hereafter set forth and declared that is to say to my son
Elisha Hall Corbin and his heirs forever lawfully begotten of his body if he
shall become to the age of twenty one years which will happen on the twenty
sixth of March one thousand seven hundred and eighty four and if it should
happen that I myself should depart this life before that time and that my
said son should be living in that case I give to my said son and his heirs law-
fully begotten of his body forever all and singular the said negroes and their
increase from and immediately after my decease but if it should happen that
my said son should die under age then the said negroes to be subject with their

212

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

increase to such disposition as I shall make there of to my last Will and testa-
ment or otherwise.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty ninth
day of May one thousand seven hundred and sixty four.

Wit:

John Montgomery

Jacob X Allison.

At a Court continued and held for Westmoreland County the twenty ninth
day of May 1765, This deed of Gift was proved by the Oaths of John Mont-
gomery and Jacob Allison the witnesses therto and Ordered to be recorded.

Teste —

[Pg. 323]

The second child born of Hannah’s union with Richard Hall was a
daughter, to whom she gave the same name as the daughter of her mar-
riage to Gawen Corbin — that of Martha.7

In March, 1772, Richard Hall made formal record of a deed of gift
to his daughter:

March 1772

Hall to Corbin — To all to whom these Present shall come Be it known that I,
Richard Hall of the County of Richmond in the Parish of North farnham for
and in consideration of natural love and affection which I have for my dearly
beloved daughter Martha Corbin youngest Daughter of Mrs. Hannah Corbin
of the said County and for diver other good causes and considerations have given
and granted and by these Present doth give and grant all and singular the fol-
lowering slaves and their increase Viz-Dinah, and Kate her child, Winney,
Charles and Harry in the following manner that is to say to my said Daughter
and her heirs for ever from and immediately after my Decease to have and to
hold all and singular the said slaves and their Increase unto my said Daughter
provided she arrives to the age of twenty one years and to her heirs forever, I
likewise give and grant and by these Present have given and granted one negro
girl named Molly and her increase to my sd. Daughter and her heirs, from and
immediately after she marries or arive to the age of twenty one years To have
and to hold the said negro girl and her increase unto my said Daughter and her
Heirs forever, provided she lives to the age of Twenty one years or is married.

In witness hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty sixth Day of March
one thousand seven hundred and seventy two.

Richard Hall.

signed and sealed and Delivered in the Presence of

John Garner

Hannah X. Garner

Deed Gift — Hall to Corbin —

7It was an eighteenth century custom in Virginia to use the same baptismal name for chil-
dren when there were different fathers or mothers. Frequent instances of this appear in the
court records of Northern Neck counties.

HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

213

March 1772.

Proved by Wit: and lodged*

This document is in Richard Hall’s own handwriting.

Thus did Hannah Lee Corbin and Richard Hail place in the public
records their relations and name their children. According to Gist
Blair, "in no State like Virginia at this period could any such open recog-
nition of the birth of child or children been made without a public
scandal, had such birth been illicit.” This apparently caused none, not
even comment. Their relations were good.

Hannah’s elder daughter, Martha, or Patty Corbin, married her kins-
man, George Richard Turberville (grandson of the third Richard Lee
of London, owner of Matholic) in 1769, and Peckatone passed into
her possession and that of her husband. Sometime after the wedding,
Hannah and Richard Hall, with their children, Elisha and Martha Hall
Corbin, moved to Woodberry Plantation in Richmond County. It was
here a few years later that Richard Lingan Hall died. The date is not
recorded, but it was probably between 1778 and 1779. According to
Richmond County tradition, he was buried near Farnham.

During the Revolution, in the late fall of 1777, when Alice Lee Ship-
pen came as a refugee to Stratford and Chantilly, the sisters were re-
united after a separation of eighteen years. Shortly before Alice re-
turned to Philadelphia in 1778, Hannah wrote her this note:

My Dear Sister

I have been long getting your Cotten done & I wish it may please you now,
for People are so engaged at this time in their own families ’tis hard to perswade
them to any thing else I could hire Cyrus here for fifty pound a year but as
I think he is not worth it I will ask you no more than you think he deserves as
for negroe girls they hire through the County at Twenty pound Least your
Cake should be all out I send a few more for your Iourny I have wrote to my
Brother & I beg you will use your interest with him to do something for the
poor desolate widows. And pray for me my dear Sister that the grace I Daily
sue for may be granted me for when I consider what an unprofitable servant I
have been I am on the brink of despair & give myself intirely up. It is a dread-
full thing to have both temporal & eternal happiness to fear the loss of — But
I shall only grieve you & cant help it, for my heart is very low — That you are
happy is some Comfort to your truly affectionate Sister

H Corbin9

Accept my Childrens duty

[The letter is addressed:]

Mrs Shippen
at Chantilly

“Westmoreland County Original Records 1754-77.

9Als : Hannah Corbin to her sister, Mrs. Shippen — Courtesy Lloyd P. Shippen.

214

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Another of Hannah’s letters to Alice is not dated, but written later, in
the fall of 1780. It is characteristic:

My dear Sister

Five of your dear Letters I have received without ever hav[i]ng an opportunity
... to answer one of them. The Bonnet & other things came safe as did the
money but the most valuable part the Books I never have got. You express a
fear in your third Letter that I may have gone back after putting my hand to the
Plough, but my Dear Sister I hope so dreadful an evil will never happen to me.
I hope I shall never live to see the day that I dont love God, for there can be
nothing I know befal me so horrible as to be left to myself. . . . And surely
never poor Mortal had so much reason to sing Free Grace as your Sister,
that My exalted Redeemer should mercifully snatch me from the Fire when
so many Thousands infinitely better by Nature have been permitted to Sin
on till they have sunk to endless misery. Glory be to my God for his Par-
doning Grace His redeeming Love. ... I think the scheme of raising
money for the Soldiers would be g[o]od if we had it in our Power to do it.
But we are so heavily Taxed that we are unable without selling our Principal
Estate to find ourselves common Support. I am thankful that my Lot is not
among the high & the great, for I know that the Rich & great are not the
favorites of Heaven because their Riches is all employed to gratify their own
Ambition & tho they profess themselves Christias they neither obey the com-
mands or Precepts of the Gospel But Amass & heap up Riches without knowing
who shall gather them Blessed are the poor in Spirit &c. Such think little of
worldly Grandeur. I am Sorry Cyrus has turned out so very bad, but I know
him thus far that if he did not want to come back he would never behave so
ill I dont know unless you are kind enough to get him brought home how I
shall find any conveyance for all the traders up the Bay that I had any acquaint-
ance with have left of the Trade except Mr Crump who I think may be in
Partnership with Mr. John Turberville. He goes frequently to Baltimore I will
speak to him if he goes to Philadelphia to call on you

You will do me a very great kindness if you can by any safe opportunity send
me the following Medicines, they are for the use of my own Family who are
very sickly. Should they come to more money than Cyrus hire pray send them
I will contrive the money to you
Camphor an Ounce
Spirit Lavender Two Ounces
Salt Wormwood Two Ounces
Emetic Tartar an Ounce

Salt petre Two pounds for making the Diaphoretick Antimony.

Two pounds of Peruvian Bark. I wish it could be got good for the French
Bark is very bad — — —

Two P.ds of Glauber Salts —
a p.d of Ginger
a p.d of Pepper
an ounce of Mace
an ounce of cloves

HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

215

half a p.d of Cinnamon.

If possible a dram of Musk.

Your poor little Niece has had convulsion fits & musk — only appeared to do
her any service and ’tho she is well at this time I should be willing to have some
by me —

If my Brother Arthur is come I hope to see him notwithstanding 1 follow the
despised Gallilean- — Blessed be God that put it in my Heart to do it, to follow
Him thro’ good report & evil report. My Dear Sister I hope we shall meet at
the Right Hand of Glory.

Yr. Affectionate sister

H Corbin10

In speaking of her son to Alice, Hannah writes: "Elisha delights
much in the Religious Society but the Lord has never yet revealed Him-
self to him.”

According to Westmoreland County tradition, Hannah was a zealous
worker for the Revolution. That she was "friendly to the freedom and
happiness” of her country is stated by her brother, Richard Henry. G.
W. Beale writes of her: "Scarcely less than her five distinguished broth-
ers she entered into the spirit that fanned the flame of freedom for the
colonies, and interested herself in the burning questions that preceded
the Revolution. . . . Beneath her womanly form and garb she bore a
singularly robust and masculine spirit.” However, no specific record of
Hannah’s work in the American Revolution has come to light, but such
activities would be entirely in keeping with her fearless and independ-
ent nature and her love of justice.

When Arthur Lee returned from France and came home to Shippen
House, his sister Hannah was among the members of the family to give
him warm welcome. This was also the time when, according to Mar-
quis de Chastellux, Lafayette and Vicomte de Noailles joined the
French diplomats in several visits and afternoon tea at Shippen House.
Hannah was doubtless one of the grave personages he refers to as being
"in the other room.”

So far as it is known, this was Hannah’s only journey away from
Virginia. Nancy Shippen’s gaiety, music, song and dance, and devotion

10Als : Hannah Corbin to her sister, Mrs. Shippen — Courtesy Lloyd P. Shippen.

Cyrus, mentioned in this letter, was one of the negro slaves of Peckatone whom Gawen
Corbin had directed in his will to be sent to the West Indies and sold and the money applied to
the paying of his debts. But Hannah kept the slave at Peckatone instead and trained him to be
a house servant. When Alice needed a butler she hired Cyrus from Hannah. An amusing ex-
planation of his “misbehaviour” is given by one of the constant visitors to Shippen House, the
French diplomat, Louis Guillaume Otto, later Comte de Mosloy. M. Otto was a suitor of Alice
Lee’s daughter, Nancy Shippen. In one of his delightful letters to Nancy, the Frenchman de-
scribed the old black house servant during afternoon tea in the Shippen parlour, as standing in
the middle of the floor, half asleep ! As Hannah intimated, Cyrus wanted to return to Virginia.

216

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

to the French could not have appealed to her aunt, whose comments — if
she wrote any — on the people, customs and the times, have not survived.

Hannah, like Alice and many other women of their time, became a
religious fanatic toward the end of her life, sadly driven by fear of
hell fire and remorse for imaginary sins. But, made of stronger stuff
than her sister, Hannah did not fall into religious melancholia.

She died about two years after her return to Virginia — the year fol-
lowing the surrender at Yorktown, and was buried in the same grave
with Richard Hall.

In her will Hannah gave Elisha and her youngest daughter, Martha,
"my Baptist Daughter,’’ their father’s name for the first time in the pub-
lic records.

It is plain where her devotion lay. The will reads:

I Hannah Corbin of the County of Richmond, living now at Mrs. Elizabeth
McFarlane’s in Westmoreland — being in my perfect sences as I hope this
writing Drawn up with my own hand will testify — do make this my last will in
manner and Form Following — first, I give my soul to my God as into the
hands of a faithful Creator, Trusting in the all Sufficient Merits of my Glorious
Redeemer for a Blessed Eternity, as for my Body I desire it may be Buried in a
private manner in whatever Place the Lord shall Please to separate my Nobler
part from it.

And first I give of my worldly Estate to my youngest Daughter, a Baptist,
Martha Hall, the Half of my House at Woodberry that is my lodging Chamber
the Nursery Closet of each side the Chimney adjoining to it and Half the
garden and Half the orchard joining that side the garden and the plantation at
peacock while she Remains Unmarried but should she marry before my Death
then this Bequest to be void and of no Effect.

I give to my said Baptist Daughter twenty head of Cattle to be chose by
herself Including in the twenty those I have already given her at my Quarter
Called Jenningses in Westmoreland County and at my seat in farnham Rich-
mond County called Woodberry and twenty young Ewes — The hogs, sheep,
the Gray Mare and her Colts already given her must be Delivered to her by
her Brother Elisha Hall Immediately upon my decease Unless she marry before
that Event takes place and then I shall alter this part by a Codisil or a new will.

I give to my said Baptist Daughter Martha Hall all the Furniture of my
Chamber at Woodberry, Except the new Bed I made this Year at Mrs. McFar-
lane’s and every thing in the Closets and nursery adjoining my Chamber Except
the silver strainer, porringer ladle five old Tea spoons, Two large Table spoons
and the silver stand of Cruets these I give to my son Elisha Hall forever.

I give also to my said Baptist Daughter my Chariot and four Horses that
Run in it with the Harness with the furniture of the Chamber and Closet for-
ever— Except what I give to my son Elisha Hall also I give my said Baptist
Daughter Martha Hall four stears and a Cart Hoes and plantation Tools for her

HANNAH LEE: MISTRESS OF PECK ATONE

2 17

Negroes to work with the Negroes that were deeded to her by Doctor Hall,
Dinah and her Daughter Kate and their Increase, Charles, Harry and Winney
— I Mention this that she may know there was such a deed given also I give my
said Baptist Daughter all my wearing apparel of every sort and kind forever.

Secondly — I give my only son Elisha Hall all my land at Woodberry and at
peacocks both these plantations are in Richmond County and all my Estate of
Every Sort and kind at Jenningses in Westmoreland County, Except what I
have given to his Baptist Sister. Upon condition that he gives his said Baptist
sister five Negroes above five years old and little Winney that now waits on her,
nor never Molests her in possession of the part of the House and Land above
Mentioned while she remains Single if he fails to perform these two Com-
mands and does not Deliver her all that I have Bequeathed her I give the
whole that I Have given to him conditionally to my said Baptist Daughter for-
ever. But if my said son performs the Conditions above mentioned then I give
him all my Lands and Houses in Richmond County Excluding Peacocks after
his sister’s Marriage and her part of the house, garden and orchard after her
Marriage, Stock horses and every other kind of thing or debt due to me in
Westmoreland and Richmond forever —

Thirdly — I make my Daughter Martha Turberville my sole Heir to all that
belongs to me in Fauquier and King George as Witness my hand and Seal this
twentieth day of October 1781.

The words while she Remains single Interlined before signing and sealing —

Hannah Corbin.

Wit:

Robert Willess.

Francis McThany.

Mary Pratt.

Codisil made October twentieth 1781 —

I desire my son Elisha Hall may have all the profits of my whole estate the
year I die.

Hannah Corbin.

Wit:

Robert Willess.

Francis McThany.

Mary Pratt.

At a Court held for Richmond County the 7th day of October 1782

This Will presented in Court by George Turberville and being Proved by the
Witnesses thereto was admitted to Record and on Motion of the said George
Turberville Giving Security Administration, with the Will annexed is granted
him.

Test —

LeRoy Peachy — C.R.C.11

Richmond County, Virginia Records. Will Book 7, pg. 416, Corbin Will.

CHAPTER XI: THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

A PECULIARLY interesting picture of the family life at the Great
House during the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods
. emerges from the musty and faded records in Westmoreland
Courthouse, as exact in detail as if Hogarth had sketched it. In domi-
nant relief stands the figure of "the Divine Matilda,” who married
her second cousin, Light-Horse Harry Lee, a few months after the sur-
render of Cornwallis. During her brief lifetime everything at Strat-
ford centered about her. The fugitive records all point to this.

Her day at Stratford was the day of romance. In the love and union
of young Harry Lee of Leesylvania and Matilda Lee of Stratford Hall,
set against the battlefields of the Carolinas and Yorktown, historians
may find a stirring romance of the American Revolution.

Matilda, the first child of Philip Ludwell Lee and his wife, Elizabeth
Steptoe, was born at Stratford about 1763. Hers was one of the oldest
of the family names. The first Matilda in the Shropshire annals of the
English Lees, as noted in the records of the College of Arms, was
Matilda, daughter of Henrici de Erdington, who married Thomas de la
Lee of Stanton in the year 1311.

How little Matilda "was made a cristan” is described in a letter from
Mrs. Lee’s housekeeper to Matilda’s cousin Martha Corbin, daughter of
Gawen and Hannah Lee Corbin. This letter, frequently quoted, contains
the earliest record of Matilda:

To Miss Martha Corbin, Potobac. Stratford, September the 27. Dear Miss.
I gladly embrace this opportunity of writing to you to put you in mind that
there is such a being as my Selfe. I did not think you two would have slited
me so, your Little cosen matilda was made a cristan the 25 of September
the godmothers was mrs. Washington miss becy taloe miss molly Washington
miss Nancy Lawson Stod proxse for miss nelly Lee and I for mrs. Fauquer,
godfathers was col. Taloe mr. Robert Carter mrs. Washington Col. Frank Lee,
the Esqr [Squire Richard Lee], mrs Washington and your ant Lee Dessers
there love to you I am your very humble Servant, Elizabeth Jackson.

The ceremony probably took place in the Great Hall. Perhaps the
baby wore the white christening gown,1 which was made and embroid-
ered by her grandmother, Mrs. Thomas Lee, and doubtless worn in turn
by each of Matilda’s aunts and uncles when they were christened.
Certain of the families allied with the Lees for more than five genera-
tions are represented in the names of Matilda’s godparents mentioned
in this quaint letter: the Washingtons of Bridges’ Creek and Bushfield,

1The christening gown is still preserved. It is owned by descendants of the Lees in Baltimore.
[218]

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

219

the Tayloes of Mount Airy, and the Carters of Nominy Hall. It is in-
teresting that Francis Lightfoot Lee, Matilda’s uncle Frank, who some
twelve years after was to sign the Declaration of Independence, was
among this group, with Rebecca, "becy” Tayloe — then a little girl —
whom he married some years later.

According to the eighteenth century custom for the daughters of
Virginia planters, Matilda and her sister Flora, two years younger, were
educated at home by governesses and special tutors. Although their
aunts Hannah and Alice had received at Stratford the same type of
instruction as their brothers and were well versed in Latin, in the third
generation of Stratford daughters the emphasis was rather upon music,
dancing, and all "the graces.”

On July 23, 1771, when Matilda was eight, her father wrote to her
Uncle William in London:

Mr. Lomax says he will make Matilda play and sing finely. He is fond of
her ear and voice he says if you will send me Santine’s work Abels’s and Cam-
pioni’s; and Scarleti’s for the harpsichord he will always think on you when he
is playing them; if to dear to send all at once by degrees he has a great regard
for you yet; and Corelli’s music he wants.

Matilda was obviously her father’s pride and joy. For so many years
Philip Ludwell Lee had lived a bachelor at Stratford, alienated from
his brothers and sisters. His late marriage and the birth of his first child
when he was forty years old, must have transformed his life and all the
Stratford scene. Matilda was also her mother’s favorite, so Light-Horse
Harry Lee says, "and the admired of all who see her.”2

Matilda and Flora were inseparable from their Chantilly cousin
"Mollie,” the daughter of their uncle Richard Henry Lee. Another
close companion was Anne Carter of Nominy Hall, daughter of Coun-
cillor Robert Carter. A memento of the friendship between the girls
and of Matilda’s dignity as elder daughter of the house survives in the
inscription written with a diamond on a pane of glass which was found
in a bookcase door in the Great Hall at Stratford:

Miss Anne Carter
Miss Lee

Miss Mollie Lee Chantilly.

In Book 6, Inventories and Accounts of the Westmoreland Count)'
Records, describing "The Estate of Honble Philip Ludwell Lee Esq, in
Acct with the Administrator” many of Matilda’s personal and indi-

2Excerpt from original unpublished letter from Harry Lee to Mrs. Fendall. Photostat col-
lection of Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation.

220 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

vidual belongings are set forth. Here are her harpsichord, her side-
saddle, her chest of drawers, her cap, her silk shoes and silver buckles,
her Ribbands, locket, gloves, mitts, even her stays. Here too are her
sett of Knitting needles, her copybook, and Rheams or quires of paper.
Packets of lawn, Callicoe, Gause, Irish Linnen, Figured Musling and
stript silk from Philadelphia are delivered at Stratford Landing by-
sea-captains. Stratford’s dancing master, Mr. Christian, is listed, the
tutresses and tutors named. Dr. Fendall is given ninety pounds of to-
bacco "for cleaning & drawing Mis Matilda’s teeth”; John Stadler is
paid 3,043 pounds of tobacco for teaching Miss Matilda the harpsi-
chord. The cost of her side saddle is 1,200 pounds of tobacco.

Echoes of the great war are sounded in frequent allusions to "raising
a soldier” and "recruiting a soldier.” Matilda’s uncles and a number
of her cousins, including young Captain Harry (called Legion Harry or
Light-Horse Harry Lee), were of course in the thick of the fighting, in
council room or on battlefield. But at Stratford all was quiet, save for
the one engagement at the Landing near the end of the war, when Ma-
tilda’s uncle, Richard Henry Lee, led the county militia to drive the crew
of a British warship from Virginia soil.

When Matilda’s father died suddenly at Stratford, February 21, 1775,
the ownership of the estate passed by provision of Thomas Lee’s will
"to the first male heir.” This was the second Philip Ludwell Lee, "Master
Phil,” Matilda’s baby brother, who was born at the very moment his
father’s coffin was being lowered into the grave.

The management of the estate, then comprising about seven thousand
acres, devolved upon Elizabeth Steptoe Lee, widow of Philip. For
several years the family comprised Mrs. Lee, her three children, Ma-
tilda, Flora, and "Master Phil,” their governesses, Miss Panthon and
Mrs. Richards, their tutor, Mr. Williams, a large number of white in-
dentured servants and slaves. During the fall of 1777 and the early
winter of 1778 Matilda’s Aunt Alice Lee Shippen of Philadelphia was
again a member of the Stratford household.

The sole references to little Philip Ludwell Lee, the third owner of
Stratford, appear in the letter from Henry Lee to his cousin William
announcing the baby’s birth in February, 1775, and in the following
two entries in the inventories:

"To Doct. Travas for Medicines & Attendance on Master Phil, in
1776.”

"1778— To Ditto Cash for Master Phil.”

The playground of Matilda and Flora.

222 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The child met a tragic death; he fell from the top of the high stone
steps of the south entrance and was instantly killed.3 The exact date is not
recorded; but it must have been between 1779 and 1780, for Philip’s
name does not appear after 1778 in any of the family or court records,
and his mother succeeded to the ownership of the Stratford estate in

1780.

With the death of the one male heir of Philip Ludwell Lee, momen-
tous changes took place in connection with the ownership of the Strat-
ford estate. Elizabeth Steptoe Lee married Philip Richard Fendall of
Maryland, later of Alexandria, Virginia; but she apparently continued
to live at Stratford for several years after her marriage.

Records of the allotment of the Great House to Mrs. Fendall in 1780
are contained in the following excerpts from the Title to Stratford com-
piled by Lucy Browne Beale:

February 29, 1780 — In Obedience to an ORDER OF COURT — We allot to
Mrs. Fendall the Mansion House and offices thereunto belonging together with
18 hundred Acres of land next adjoining thereto (and hereafter described) in
full of her DOWER in the said Lands— The Mills are Excepted from this
division and remain to the Estate in Common one-third to the Dower and
two-thirds to the remaining part of the Estate.

The Land which we annex to the Buildings and which we compute will
compose Mrs. Fendall’s Dower are the Tract called Motts containing 450 Acres,
the Tract purchased of Catesby Cock containing 688 Acres and part of the
Tract called the Lower Clifts — 662 Acres.

This Division and allotment of the Estate of the Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee,
dec’d being returned is ordered to be recorded April 30, 17829

The "Lands of Stratford’’ in February, 1780, included the Clifts and
Hallows Marsh. They were divided between Elizabeth Steptoe Fendall,
the widow of Philip Ludwell Lee, and her two daughters, Matilda and
Flora Lee. Mrs. Fendall held a dower interest in the estate until the year
of her death in 1789-

Another item in the Westmoreland Records states: "On January 30,

1781, 'Matilda Lee orphan of the Honble Philip Ludwell Lee, dec’d,
made choice of Richard Henry Lee for her Guardian, wherupon he
together with Richd. Lee his Security entered into Bond &c.’ ”5 Over a
period of several years Richard Henry Lee represented his nieces, Ma-
tilda and Flora, in the various legal procedures in connection with the
partition of the Stratford estate of which they were co-heiresses.

3Statement to writer by Mrs. Mildred Lee Francis.

’Inventories & Accounts Book 6, p. 179: Virginia Westmoreland County Records.
EVirginia Westmoreland County Records Court Orders, 1776-1786. Pg. 105.

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES 223

Some of the expenses of their life at Stratford are detailed in the
following inventory:

£337, sl3, d8 4562 V2 Crop Tobo.

1781—

By Board of the two Young Ladies & their Tutress the 1st Jan. 1780 to 1st

Jany. 1781, Viz —

For Matilda — 5,000, Flora — 1,500, Mrs. Richards — 1,800. . .8,300 lbs. of Tob.
By Tax for a Lot in Leeds for Soldiers Cloaths etc.

Paid Jno. Washington £ 120 0 0

By Cash paid for 2 yds. Irish Linnen for Miss Flora 120 0 0

By 1 pc. fine Chintz. — 1,500 lbs. & Pocket Money for Mis Ma-
tilda 30 0 0

By 2V2 yds. Figured Musling for Mis Matilda — 750 lbs. of Tob.

1782, Jan. 1st —

By 1 year board of Mis Matilda 5,000 lbs. of Tob.

By 1 yr. board for Miss Flora — 1,800 lbs. Tob.

1 yr. board for Mrs. Richards — 2,160 lbs. Tob.

By pd. Doctor Tompson for 24 yds. Irish Linnen for Miss
Matilda 720 lbs. Tob.

April 8th, 1782—

By pd. Dr. Brown for Medecines 3 4 6

By 3 hhds. of Leeds old Tobo. to Colo. Richd. Henry Lee to
purchase necessaries for Mis Matilda — . .3,190 lbs. Tob.6

Just why so many more pounds of tobacco went for "Mis Matilda’s”
board, goods, necessaries and "Pocket money” than ever were allotted
to Flora is not clear.

Like most of her contemporaries, Matilda had probably become a
"young lady” by the time she was fifteen. As the daughter of a mem-
ber of the King’s Council and a Lee of Stratford, she had high place in
Westmoreland. With her sister Flora, she was, according to G. W.
Beale, one of the noted belles of the county. Notwithstanding the
progress of the war, there continued to be at Stratford much social
gaiety, visitors, dinners, dances.

The balcony on the roof was used on moonlight nights for a prome-
nade during the dances in the Great Hall. Carter Lee says:

. . . when I was a boy, the chimneys of the house were the columns of two
summer-houses, between which there was a balustrade; and in Col. Philip Lee’s
time, during the evening promenade of ladies and gentlemen, a band of music
played the while in one of the summer-houses. Col. Philip also kept a barge,
in which the family enjoyed the music of his band upon the water.7

"Westmoreland County, Virginia Records Inventories & Accts. Book Sixth, page 187.

7 Genealogical History of the Lee Family of Virginia and Maryland from A.D. 1300 to A.D.
1866. With notes and illustrations; edited by Edward C. Mead. New York, Richardson and
Company, 1868.

The old beeches at Stratford.

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

225

A note on Matilda’s appearance is given by Alice Lee’s husband, Dr.
William Shippen, in one of his letters to his son Tom, Matilda’s cousin.
He repeats an observation that Matilda was "very like what your
Mamma was.’’ And Alice Lee had been described by one of her daugh-
ter’s suitors as expressing "upon all her features that heavenly mild-
ness which is the Characteristick of her Soul.’’ Such an enthusiastic
comment, together with the beauty which Carter Lee says his father,
Light-Horse Harry, ascribed to Matilda, doubtless contributed to her
designation in the Westmoreland annals as "the Divine Matilda.’’ G.
W. Beale records the delightful name given to Matilda in the old tales
of the county. It was a customary eighteenth century fancy in Virginia
and Maryland to add a touch of glamour to its celebrated women. Mary,
the mother of Washington, was traditionally "The Rose of Epping
Forest”; Light-Horse Harry Lee’s mother, Lucy Grymes, was "The Low-
land Beauty,” and Ann Rousby Plater of Sotterly, "The White Rose of
Maryland.”

Matilda evidently had the poise, sprightly humor, and sophistication
characteristic of many Virginia girls, accustomed as they were from
their early teens to "social elegancies” and the admiration and court of
men. The few original expressions of hers which have survived and
will be quoted here not only indicate this but also show that for a girl of
the late eighteenth century Matilda Lee was no sentimentalist, but a dis-
tinctly modern personage, and a woman of the world despite her youth.
She knew well how to command her suitors and her beaux and to evoke
the profound adoration of the man she came to love — young, impetu-
ous, and brilliant Harry Lee.

He had known her since she was the baby of the house, seven years
younger than he. During his visits to his father’s early home in West-
moreland, Lee Hall, he no doubt called frequently on his other Lee rela-
tions at Stratford and Chantilly. As he passed to the southward in the
late fall of 1780, with his newly formed Partisan Legion, he may have
seen Matilda, no longer a pretty little cousin, but a young lady of seven-
teen— a reigning belle — moving in a society gay in spite of the war.
Perhaps his subsequent valor in battle drew source and color not only
from his passion for the cause of liberty and for military glory but also
from his love for Matilda. He must have gone directly to see her from
Yorktown in October, 1781, after the surrender of the British, though
no record tells it, and arranged that their marriage should take place the
following April. He was obliged to hasten back to the Carolinas, and it

226 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

was early in the spring of the new year before he returned to Stratford.

In April Legion Harry, sun-burned, wind-tanned, brown as an Indian,
so Carter Lee says, came to Stratford to marry Matilda. Attending him
was his military servant, George Welden, an Englishman and one of
Colonel Harry’s faithful troopers, who worshipped the very ground his
colonel trod. Matilda and Flora stood on the housetop balcony of the
Great House to see their young kinsman come riding from the field of
war. As he rode past the grove of maples, they recognized him and
welcomed him with joy. The colonel’s orderly who came with him that
day never left the place thereafter. In Carter Lee’s original unpublished
manuscript he says of Welden:

But if he aided his Colonel no more in the battles of Mars, than in those of
Venus, to engage in which, this "Squire so gay” had attended him to Stratford,
his efforts were very maladroit. I remember hearing my father tell an anecdote
of him, which he got from his beautiful Matilda, after she had become his
wife, which will prove what I say. Welden, she said, was very fond of seeking
occasions to say a good word for his hero, & at the end of one of his eulogies
she remarked, that his Colonel’s beauty was very much spoiled by his com-
plexion, which was almost as brown as an Indian’s. Ah, he replied, that is
only where the hot sun of Carolina could burn him, but if you could see under
his clothes, you find his skin is as fair as a lily. And how, replied the lady, do
you know that? "O, Miss, because I have seen it so often while ’nointing him
for the itch! ! !”

Matilda, it is plain, had the Steptoe sense of humor. She took her
lover as he was. No doubt she tempered his boyish egotism and ex-
travagance, his natural tendency for "showing off,’’ and laughed him
out of any sulking to which he may have been inclined.

The exact date of the wedding is not known. That it was in April,
1782, is evident, however, from certain of the inventory and court order
entries which show that Matilda was "Mis Matilda Lee” on April 8,
1782, and "Mrs. Henry Lee” by April thirtieth.

Like his cousins of Stratford and Chantilly, Harry Lee was born and
bred on the Potomac. His birthplace, Freestone Point, Leesylvania Plan-
tation, Prince William County, was some seventy miles upstream from
Stratford Landing. When his parents, Henry and Lucy Grymes Lee,
settled there just after their marriage in 1753, Leesylvania was a tract
of wild land, thickly wooded, not far from Colonel John Tayloe’s sur-
face iron mine and furnace. It was about three miles above the county
seat, Dumfries, the tobacco shipping port and mercantile center of that
region. The little city of Alexandria was a few miles to the north.

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

227

Prince William was formed in 1739 from the counties of Stafford
and King George. Many of the early settlers of Tidewater patented
lands in this section where their sons or grandsons settled. Lees, Har-
risons, Masons, Eskridges, Carters, Tayloes, McCartys, Fitzhughs,
Brents, Washingtons, and Turbervilles were among the families estab-
lished here in or before the middle of the eighteenth century. Practically
all were related through intermarriages of several generations.

Dumfries, like Falmouth on the Rappahannock, was founded by a
group of prosperous Glasgow merchants. It afforded a market for the
tobacco grown on the newly established plantations of the county, in-
cluding Leesylvania. Numerous roads were built, and tobacco was
brought by wagon and ox-team and by boat to Dumfries, where it was
loaded on the sea-going vessels.8

The ancestral homes of the Virginia Lees were in Gloucester, Nor-
thumberland, and Westmoreland Counties. Harry Lee’s grandfather was
Henry, "Dragoon Harry,’’ Thomas Lee’s favorite brother, who leased
with him the old Matholic plantation and built Lee Hall on the adjoin-
ing plantation after his marriage to Mary Bland. Their son, the second
Henry, was born at Lee Hall in 1729 and lived in Westmoreland until
1753. At Stratford he was a familiar and beloved figure. He married
Lucy Grymes of Morattico, in the neighboring county of Richmond,
daughter of Charles Grymes and Frances Jenings. The Charles Grymes
family was connected with the Ludwells of Green Spring, through the
marriage of Lucy’s sister, Frances, to the third Philip Ludwell. When
Lucy, "The Lowland Beauty,” became the wife of Henry Lee, a closer
alliance was formed with the families Ludwell, Harrison, Jenings, and
Grymes. Lucy was very fair. Her eyes were blue and her hair excep-
tionally blonde, soft and light as a baby’s.9 According to local tradition,
she was one of the Virginia beauties adored by Washington in his early
youth. To her legend also ascribes his schoolboy verses, and many have
surmised that when in after years Washington so favored her son, it was
because of his tender memories of the boy’s mother.

Lucy’s wedding to Henry Lee took place in her sister’s home, the old
Castle at Green Spring, December 1, 1753, where a little over thirty
years before Thomas Lee and Hannah Ludwell had been married and
where William Lee was to spend the last years of his life.

8In Landmarks of Old Prince William, an interesting account is given of this Virginia town,
which was a part of Harry Lee’s boyhood.

“A lock of Lucy Grymes’ beautiful hair was preserved by her descendant, Elizabeth Collins
Lee, and is now in the possession of J. Collins Lee.

228 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The Prince William forest lands bordering the Potomac, where Henry
and Lucy Lee established their home, were bequeathed to Lee by his
father, August 21, 1747, together with another tract of thirty-five hun-
dred acres in the adjoining county of Fairfax, and some twenty slaves.
"Neapsico,” Point of Rocks, was the Indian name of the site of their
home. In the Lee family it became Freestone Point, or simply Freestone,
and its surrounding forest lands were called Leesylvania.

It was a comparatively high, rocky point of land jutting out into the
Potomac River, and commanding a view far down stream. The Lee
homestead, built of red brick, was two and a half stories high with huge
chimneys on each side. Two-story porches or porticoes were on the
front and rear entrances. A succession of terraces descended to the
water. By comparison with Stratford and other great houses of the
Northern Neck and the James River region, Freestone was small and
simple, a comfortable farm house rather than a mansion. Today only
the foundation and chimneys remain, overgrown with weeds and vines.

Earnest discussion of county, colony, and world events took place
in this Leesylvania homestead. From the year Henry Lee settled in
Prince William, he was identified with community affairs. He served
as county lieutenant, justice of the peace, Burgess, and member of the
Revolutionary Conventions. He was also associated for a brief space
with the negotiation of treaties with the Indians. "Although possessing
no dominant qualities of leadership,” Douglas Southall Freeman says,
"he was heart and hand in the Revolutionary causes.” And Dr. Free-
man quotes his letter to his cousin William, March 1, 1775, "We are
determined on preserving our libertys if necessary at the Expense of our
Blood, being resolved not to survive Slavery.”10 Henry Lee was an ex-
pert horseman, a connoisseur and lover of horses. "System, thrift, and
love of horses were three characteristics of Henry Lee the second,” ob-
serves Dr. Freeman. The stables at Leesylvania included several horses
known in the turf annals of the time: Diamond, Roan, Gimrack, Ranter,
Flimack, and the bay mare Famous.

The first child of Henry and Lucy Grymes Lee was a daughter who
died in infancy. Harry, the first of their five sons, was born January 29,
1756. He had his mother’s blue eyes, light hair, and fair skin. The boy’s
earliest memories must have been of river and plantation life and the
Leesylvania stables where at an early age he had his own string of mares
and colts.

10 R. E. Lee, I, 162.

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES 229

The Leesylvania family eventually comprised eight children: Henry,
Charles, Richard Bland, Theodorick, Edmund Jennings, Lucy, Mary,
and Anne. There was never a Leesylvania line of Lees in a genealogical
sense. Only one generation was represented here as against five genera-
tions at Stratford, for after the deaths of Henry and Lucy their children
lived elsewhere. Lreestone Point passed into the hands of another
family, and Leesylvania became only a remembered name.

Although the elder Henry Lee was not known as a scholar, he evi-
dently made a discriminating selection of tutors and exercised a careful
supervision of his sons’ education at home. The tutors of the period were
invariably learned young Scotchmen who must have put their young
charges to arduous tasks. At the early age of thirteen Harry entered the
College of New Jersey, later Princeton University. At the same time
arrangements were made for his brother Charles, nearly two years
younger, to be placed in the grammar school at Princeton.

Their father’s choice of the college for his sons’ education undoubt-
edly came about through the influence of the Shippens of Pennsylvania,
who were among its founders. Henry Lee’s former ward, Alice Lee, and
her husband, Dr. William Shippen, in Philadelphia, could readily keep
in touch with the two Lee boys. Lurthermore, the president of the col-
lege, Dr. John Witherspoon, was one of the intimates of the Shippen
household, and his political views coincided with those of Henry Lee.
Accordingly, his sons’ principles would be preserved, and their develop-
ment properly directed by so liberal and courageous a man as President
Witherspoon. "Prom a character such as Witherspoon,” says Burton
Hendrick, "and from studies such as prevailed at Princeton, Henry Lee
was the kind of youngster to profit.”11

Apparently the Lee boys completely satisfied the exacting president.
When he wrote to their father enclosing the bills for board and tuition,
he said:

"I have nothing to add to what I writ formerly of the behavior of
your sons, and their progress in their learning, it has always been in all
respects agreeable.”

During the boys’ freshman year Dr. Shippen visited them at Prince-
ton and wrote to Richard Henry Lee:

Philad’a, 25th Aug., 1770.

We are much disappointed in not seeing you here with your son or sons on
your way to Dr. Witherspoon. Your Sister will be very happy when that time
comes and prays it may be very soon. I am persuaded there is not such a school

llTlie Lees of Virginia, by Burton Hendrick, p. 3 33.

230 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

on the Continent. Your cousin Henry Lee is in College and will be one of the
first fellows in this country. He is more than strict in his morality; he has a
hne genius and is too diligent. Charles is in the grammar School and the Dr.
expects much from his genius and application too. If you will be here by the
24th of September I will escort you to the Commencement at Princeton, which
will be on the 25th.

A number of Lee’s classmates were to have with him future careers of
interest in American history. Among them were James Madison, Brock-
hoist Livingston, Philip Freneau, Philip Vickers Fithian, H. H. Brack-
enridge, and Aaron Burr.

Every available record offers evidence that young Lee had an eager
and imaginative mind, that he was sensitive, emotional, and impulsive,
that he was hungry for knowledge and indefatigable in acquiring it.
He was a true descendant of "Richard the Scholar,” as his great-grand-
father, the second Richard Lee, was called in the family.

Although he studied mathematics in his senior year, there is no indi-
cation that he was intimately interested in it or was concerned with
practical business methods or money affairs. His chief interest lay in
the classics. The characters and the victories of Philip of Macedon,
Alexander, Caesar, and Hannibal filled his mind with dreams of equal-
ling their fame: "What breast is so callous to noble feelings,” he said,
"as not to pant to be called their rivals?”12 Under the influence of sym-
pathetic masters this boyish dreaming ripened into a mature appreciation
of the style and the philosophy of the Greek and Latin poets. Through-
out his life, Sophocles was to him meat and bread and wine. He would
quote word for word and line for line from the poets and philosophers
he loved.

Years later, in letters to his wife and son, he wrote of his interest in
the Greek and Latin poets and historians during his college days. The
delight which they stirred in him was practically his only solace during
his last years of exile and suffering. In an unpublished letter to his wife,
September 3, 1813, in Lee’s fifty-seventh year, are these lines:13

To read Homer & Demosthenes in their own language with entire knowledge
of their stile & meaning, is worthy of the most elevated mind & to accomplish
the object demonstrate^] the possession of a mind both elevated & erudite.
I am sure that the time I devoted when a youth to the greek language & to these
authors was the best spent period of my academic life so far as I can judge
from the past — Do enamour my son with the laudable ambition of outstripping
his father in his favorite classical acquirement & tell him how I shall be grati-

"Letter from Henry Lee to Carter Lee, May 3, 1817, in Lee of Virginia, p. 354.

"Original Lee Letters and Documents : Photostat collection Robert E. Lee Memorial Foun-
dation, Inc.

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

231

fied if I should ever find him capable of reading over these superior Greeks to
his aged father.

At Princeton, too, was fostered the passion for Liberty which deter-
mined to so great an extent the course of his later life. President Wither-
spoon imbued Princeton students with much of his own feeling. Liberty
was not an abstract word to them. It was an altar before which those
early students of old Nassau knelt in worship.

The curriculum of Harry Lee’s senior year included a course in moral
philosophy under Doctor Witherspoon, with lectures on typesof govern-
ment, jurisprudence, ethics, and politics. Here was the language familiar
in the Lee family, at Stratford, Chantilly, Bellevue, Menokin, and Free-
stone Point. It was the language that had been spoken in Jamestown
and in Williamsburg. Harry Lee had been brought up on it, as his fathers
had been before him. But hearing his masters extol Liberty and his
friends discuss it hotly must have tended to intensify his own thought
and feeling. When he returned to Virginia in 1773, he bore with him,
besides his sheepskin and his prize for translating English into Latin, a
passionate conviction that the liberties of mankind were rights sacred
and inviolable. And he would live for them, and if need be, die for
them.

All over Virginia was the leaven of Liberty at work. In the neighbor-
ing county of Fairfax, men met and drew up the Fairfax Resolves:

At a Meeting of a Number of Gentlemen & Freeholders of Fairfax County
in the Colony of Virginia on Wednesday the 2 1 ;st Day of September 1774,
George Mason Esqr. in the Chair, the following Association was formed &
entered into.

In this Time of extreme Danger, with the Indian Enemy in our Country, and
threat’ ned with the Destruction of our Civil-rights, & Liberty, and all that is
dear to British Subjects & Freemen; We the Subscribers, taking into our serious
Consideration the present alarming — Situation of all the British Colonies upon
this Continent, as well as our own, being sensible of the Expediency of putting
the Militia of this Colony upon a more respectable Footing, & hoping to excite
others by our Example, have voluntarily freely & cordially entered into the
following Association; which We, each of Us for ourselves respectively,
solemnly promise, & pledge our Honours to each other, and to our Country to
perform.

That We will form ourselves into a Company, not exceeding one hundred
Men, by the Name of The Fairfax independent Company of Voluntiers, —
making Choice of our own Officers; to whom, for the Sake of Good-order &
Regularity, We will pay due [sujbmission. That We will meet at such Times
& places in this County as our said Officers (to be chosen by a Majority of the
Members, so soon as fifty have subscribed) shall appoint & direct, for the

232 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Purpose of learning & practising the military Exercise & Discipline; dress’d in
a Regular Uniform of Blue, turn’d up with Buff, [w]ith plain yellow metal
Butto[n]s, Buff Waist Coat & Breeches, & white Stockings; and furnished
with a good Fire-lock & Bayonet, Sling Cartouch-Box, and Tomahawk. And
that We will, each of us, constantly keep by us a Stock of Six pounds of
Gunpowder, twenty pounds of Lead, and fifty Gun-flints, at the least.

That we will use our most Endeavours, as well at the Musters of the said
Company, as by all other Means in our Power, to make ourselves — Masters of
the Military Exercise. And that We — will always hold ourselves in Readiness,
in Case of Necessity, hostile Invasion, or real Danger of the Community of
which We are Members, to defend to the utmost of our Power, the legal
prerogatives of our Sovereign King George the third, and the jus[t] Rights
& Privileges of our Country, our Posterity & ourselves, upon the Principles of
the British Constitutio[n].

Agreed that all the Subscribers to this Association do meet on Monday the
17th Day of October next, at eleven o’Clock in the Fore-noon, at the Court
House in Alexandria].14

His career, young Harry Lee thought, would be in law and the "field
of legislation.” The word "politics” had no place in his idealism. Dur-
ing the next two years spent at home under the tutelage of his father,
Harry Lee was prepared, "by a course of education for the profession
of the law, and he was just about embarking for England to pursue the
study of it under the patronage of his relative, since known as Bishop
Porteous, when the commencement of hostilities changed his destiny.”15

Before the "hostilities,” however, the college lad frequently visited
his kinspeople and old family friends in the Northern Neck, where he
was a popular and attractive figure. Several spicy anecdotes are related
of him, the tutor Philip Fithian, his former classmate, being one of the
commentators. His biographers speak of the hunts, house parties, and
balls, etc., which made gay the life of Virginia young people, in which
he had part.

Doubtless, too, there were quiet intervals at Leesylvania when he
reread the classics he had come to love at Princeton, and reviewed the
tactics and campaigns of his favorite generals. He began his military
career in a modest way organizing and drilling the militia of Prince
William County.

Soon after the battle of Lexington Harry Lee entered the Continental
army as captain of cavalry, at the age of nineteen. He received from
Governor Patrick Henry his appointment to command one of the com-

14Fairfax Resolves, 1774, from photostat Library of Congress.

“Excerpt from Letter X: Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, by H. Lee

(1839), p. 137.

p. 332.

panies in the Virginia Light Dragoons under Colonel Theodorick
Bland, his kinsman.

Says Edmund Jennings Lee:

. . . Lee soon distinguished himself by his thorough discipline of his troop-
ers, as well as by the care and attention given to their horses and equipment.
He wrote his colonel, under date of 13th of April, 1777, ”... How happy
would I be, if it was possible for my men to be furnished with caps and boots,
prior to my appearance at head-quarters! You know, my dear Colonel, that,
justly, an officer’s reputation depends not only on the discipline, but appear-
ance of his men. Could the articles mentioned be allowed my troop, their
appearance into Morris [Morristown] would secure me from the imputation
of carelessness as their captain, and I have vanity enough to hope would assist
in procuring some little credit to the colonel and regiment. Pardon my solicita-
tions on any head respecting the condition of my troop; my sole object is the
credit of the regiment.”

E. Jennings Lee concludes that Harry Lee’s appearance must have
been such as he desired, "or his subsequent behaviour in active service
must have been successful, for he appears to have won the esteem and
affection of Washington very early in the war. It is certain that he was
frequently employed by his commander on confidential missions and in
hazardous expeditions.”

The engagements in which Legion Harry had part while attached to
the army in the north are summed up by his son Henry:

Besides being present at other important actions, in the northern department,
he was at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Springfield;
and soon became a favourite of Gen. Washington. In the difficult and critical
operations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, from 1777 to 1780
inclusive, he was always placed near the enemy, entrusted with the command

[233]

234

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

of the outposts, with the superintendence of spies, and with that kind of service,
which required in an eminent degree, the possession of coolness, address, and
enterprise. During the occupation of Philadelphia by the royal forces, his
activity and success in straitening their communications, in cutting off their
light parties and intercepting their supplies, drew on him the particular at-
tention of the enemy. And being attacked in consequence, his defence of the
Spread Eagle Tavern, with only ten men, against Tarleton at the head of two
hundred, which has been already alluded to, excited no little admiration. When
the distress of the army for provisions reduced Gen. Washington to the neces-
sity of foraging for supplies, as if he had occupied the country of an enemy, a
measure which, as may be supposed, excited the most injurious discontent
among the inhabitants, Lee, being employed on it, had the address to execute
this painful but necessary duty, without exciting the smallest disaffection. He
co-operated as far as cavalry could act, in Gen. Wayne’s attack on Stony Point,
and procured the intelligence on which it was projected. Indeed, from a part
of his correspondence with Gen. Washington which has been preserved, it
seems not improbable that Major Lee suggested that brilliant enterprise. . . ,16
So ingenious, so daring and skillful was Harry Lee that General
Washington urged Congress to give him the command of an independ-
ent corps :

Captain Lee of the light dragoons, and the officers under his command, hav-
ing uniformly distinguished themselves by a conduct of exemplary zeal, pru-
dence, and bravery, I took occasion, on a late signal instance of it, to express
the high sense I entertained of their merit, and to assure him, that it should not
fail of being properly noticed. I was induced to give this assurance from a
conviction, that it is the wish of Congress to give every encouragement to
merit, and that they would cheerfully embrace so favorable an opportunity of
manifesting this disposition. I had it in contemplation at the time, in case
no other method more eligible could be adopted, to make an offer of a place
in my family. I have consulted the committee of Congress upon the subject, and
we are mutually of the opinion, that giving Captain Lee the command of two
troops of horse on the proposed establishment, with the rank of major, to act
as an independent corps, would be a mode of rewarding him very advantageous
to the service. Captain Lee’s genius particularly adapts him to command of
this nature; and it will be most agreeable to him of any station in which he
could be placed.

On April 7, 1778, Congress passed the following act:

Resolved, whereas Captain Henry Lee, of the Light Dragoons, by the whole
tenor of his conduct during the last campaign, has proved himself a brave and
prudent officer, rendered essential service to his country, and acquired to him-
self and the corps he commanded, distinguished honor, and it being the de-
termination of Congress to reward merit, Resolved, that Captain Henry Lee be
promoted to the rank of Major-Commandant; that he be empowered to aug-

16Excerpt from Letter X: Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 147 & 148.

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

235

ment his present corps by enlistment of two corps of horse, to act as a separate
corps.

"These gay, daring, high-mettled fellows, of whom an observer
would have 'counted heroes where he counted men’ — reserved for criti-
cal services [were] picked man by man from the army, by General Wash-
ington’’17 and young Harry was the officer placed at their head. Thus
was created the invincible Legion of the American Revolution. Lee was
termed thereafter "Legion Harry,” "Lee of the Legion” or "Light-Horse
Harry Lee.” His exploits stirred the youth of the land.

Harry’s father, deeply gratified and proud of his son’s record, wrote
on May 10, 1779, to Arthur Lee in France: "Tell y.r Sister Lee & Bror
William that her Aunt is well & my son Harry has often distinguished
himself in the horse service & is now Major Commandant of an Inde-
pendd Corps of Cavalry.”18

In speaking further of the organization of Light-Horse Harry’s fa-
mous Legion, Henrv Lee, Junior, said:

These services of Gen. Lee, . . . gained for him a reputation for talent and
patriotism, which induced Congress in November, 1780, to promote him to a
Lieutenant Colonelcy of dragoons, and to augment his corps by adding to
it three companies of infantry, the officers and men composing which, he was
authorized by Gen. Washington to select from the whole army.

With this chosen corps, he was soon detached to join the army of Gen.
Greene in the south, where great exertions were required to recover the ground
lost by Gates’s defeat at Camden. On this occasion, his patriotism exalted by
the misfortunes of his country, he expended in the purchase of horses for his
dragoons, and in equipping his corps, a considerable part of the small fortune
given him by his father, a contribution for which, though it proved of essential
advantage to his country, he never received, nor even asked remuneration.19

Major Henry Lee adds that the prevalence of blood in the horses of
the famous Legion made it "at once the scourge and terror of the enemy.
Wonderful in their endurance of hunger, thirst, and fatigue; prompt to
strike a blow where it was the least expected; and, when forced, quick
to retreat.”

Another comment from within the family circle came from Dr. Ship-
pen in a letter to little Tom, then at Needwood Forest Academy in
Maryland: "Major Lee now Col. Lee on his way to the southward with
his Legion, a very fine corps 130 horse and 200 foot I wish you to see
them at Frederick.”

17 The Campaign of 1781 in The Carolina s, p. 376.

'"Original unpublished autographed letter : Public Record Office, London.

18 Observations on the IV ritings of Thomas Jefferson, by H. Lee, with introduction and notes
by Charles Carter Lee. Philadelphia: J. Dobson &c. 2d ed., 1839, p. 151.

236 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Young Lee held the confidence and approbation of Washington as
did no other officer of his years, excepting Lafayette. By act of Congress
on September 24, 1779, a medal was awarded Legion Harry in recog-
nition of his capture of Jersey City, then termed Paulus Hook, from the
British:

Resolved, that the thanks of Congress be given to Major Lee for the remark-
able prudence, address and bravery displayed in the attack on the enemy’s fort
and works at Paulus Hook, and that they approve the humanity shown in cir-
cumstances prompting to severity, as honorable to the arms of the United
States, and correspondent to the noble principles on which they were assumed,
and that a gold medal, emblematic of this affair, be struck under the direction
of the Board of Treasury, and presented to Major Lee.

Such an inscription with noble words and phrases savoring of classic
exploits must have gratified the lad’s heart.

His devoted friend and companion-in-arms, Marquis de Lafayette,
whom he loved and confided in, wrote from the Light Camp on August
27, 1780:

The more I have considered the situation of Paulus Hook, the more I have
admired your enterprising spirit, and all your conduct in that business. . . .
All motives of esteem and friendship contribute to my happiness in hearing
that you are directed to join the light infantry, and I do assure you that I wish
to do every thing in my power to procure you what you and your corps will
like the best, viz. fighting and glory.

Again, on October 29, Lafayette said:

From my soul, my dear sir, I wish you all possible success, and I ever shall
not only rejoice but also glory in any advantage that may add to your laurels.
Let me often hear from you, and be sure that the moment when I will meet
you again will be an happy one for me. Present my best compliments to the
gentlemen officers of your legion, and tell them, as well as your soldiers, that
I shall ever preserve the most perfect esteem and affection for them.20

Almost every design, stratagem, and maneuver Lee originated and put
into execution, succeeded. His first scheme, during the British occupa-
tion of Philadelphia, had been to fool the soldiers of King George, to
throw dust in their eyes and make them think his handful of troopers
was a regiment — a dozen regiments. And he did impress them with
the size and power of the Continental army, when at that time it had
neither. His next plan, to feed the starving men at Valley Forge by hook
or crook, was also successful. Then came Stony Point, Paulus Hook, his
daring exploits in the Carolinas, and finally his plan to bottle up Corn-
wallis in Virginia.

Few young officers in the Continental army conceived so many start-

~°Lee's Campaign of 1781, 1824. H. Lee, Appendix A.

Colonel Harry Lee of the Legions.

238

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

ling plans and stratagems. Here was the amazing spectacle of a twenty-
one-year-old boy totally without military experience, originating some
of the most brilliant and effective projects of the American Revolution.
That Washington and Greene encouraged the initiative of their young
subordinate and perceived the adroitness of the plans he originated re-
dounds to the credit of their own leadership. But certain of Lee’s brother
officers, jealous of his position and success, took the credit for many of
his designs and exploits. This circumstance, occurring again and again,
plunged Lee into despondency, and put him into the false position of a
credit-seeker, when he asked only that his merit be justly recognized and
that deserts due him should not be given others.

A full report of Lee’s services in the Revolution has never been com-
piled. As the evidence is studied and weighed by psychologists and
historians, the place won by Light-Horse Harry Lee in the war of the
American Revolution takes on greater importance from year to year.

Legion Harry’s true nature and temperament are perhaps best shown
in this letter, written at Camp New Garden, March 20, 1781, addressed
"to the Commanding Officers of the Militia of Roan, Surry, and Meck-
lenburgh Counties, North Carolina:

My friends and countrymen.

Being near your county, and well knowing the patriotism and gallantry
which you have uniformly displayed in defence of your country, I conceive it
my duty to inform you of the present situation of our affairs.

You have already heard of the general action between the two armies on the
15th instant. It is unnecessary to acquaint you with the effects of that engage-
ment, as the retreat of Lord Cornwallis, and the pursuit of General Greene,
best discover the real loss on each side. But a very small part of the regular
troops engaged; some new raised troops behaved dastardly, which confused the
regiments nearest them, and rendered it prudent to retire and postpone the
decision to another day.

The enemy’s small army is reduced to a very insignificant body, their most
experienced general and officers, and their bravest soldiers are killed and
wounded. Cornwallis has left a number behind him at New Garden Meeting
House, and is running with his broken army to some place of safety. His
deluded friends, our unhappy brethren called tories, experience the imbecility
of his pretences to protect them, and are prudently throwing themselves on
the mercy of their countrymen. General Greene is advancing with his army in
health and spirits to overtake the foe, determined to fight them as soon as he
can reach them. The French fleet are victorious in Europe, in the West Indies
and in America; and General Washington keeps Sir Henry Clinton close in
New York. General Arnold with his army in Virginia is besieged at Ports-
mouth, and on the point of surrendering to the Marquis Lafayette. Every opera-
tion in every part of the world promises immediate and decisive success to

THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE LEES

239

America. Come then my friends, fly to your arms, and by your efforts for a few
days delay the enemy’s retreat till your countrymen can get up with them.
Recollect our glorious exertion the last campaign, and let it not be said that
you shrink from danger at this interesting crisis. Before this can reach you,
you will know whether the enemy direct their flight by Cross creek or through
your county. In either case it is my hope and expectation that you will be
near them, and be assured take what route they may, you will find horse and
foot from General Greene’s army, convenient for your junction. This letter is
meant for the information of all our southern friends, but especially for such
of our brave countrymen in the counties of Roan, Surry, and Mecklenburgh, as
may not be in actual service under General Sumpter. Wishing you every hap-
piness public and private, I am,

Your friend and soldier,

Henry Lee, Jun.21

Such a letter, brief, concise, and friendly, must have stirred the friend-
ship and admiration of the men to whom it was addressed, friendship
that would last long after their colonel’s project for the capture of
Cornwallis had been accomplished and he had begun his journey back
to Stratford and Matilda.

^Appendix XXX, Lee’s Campaign of 1781.

CHAPTER XII: THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

IN the spring of 1782 the Great House with its village of outbuild-
ings, its gardens, stables, shops, mills, farms and fisheries, passed
from the ownership of Matilda and Flora to that of Matilda and
Light-Horse Harry Lee. Matilda’s mother moved to her new home near
Alexandria and Flora went with her.

For Colonel Harry, as he was invariably called in the family, the life
of a country gentleman and a farmer was now in prospect. The various
acts of personal injustice he suffered in the army, which had so disil-
lusioned and embittered him, apparently receded into the background
of his thoughts as time went on and his health and happiness were
restored. After all, if he had but a scant supply of laurels to bring to
Matilda, what of it?

Matilda was a young woman of good sense. And she had a very
real devotion for her husband, "my gentleman,” she called him. She
would scarcely have set store by any outward symbols of his valor, the
calibre of which she must have known for herself. It was privilege
enough, she might have argued, for her lover to have had a part equally
with other patriot soldiers in defending his native land and in establish-
ing the new nation.

Colonel Harry was not well fitted for the vocation that he now
elected. In the handling of details of plantation business he had little
training beyond a single year’s management of Leesylvania during his
father’s absence. Any tendency that he might have had toward orderly
and practical business habits would have been completely uprooted by
the chaotic conditions of his life in the succeeding years of the Revolu-
tionary War.

In August, 1782, took place a partition of the properties of the Strat-
ford estate and other inherited lands between the widow of Philip
Ludwell Lee, her daughter Flora, and Matilda and Harry Lee. In the
negotiations to acquire Matilda’s share free and clear, Harry and Ma-
tilda gave bond of twenty thousand pounds to the executors of the
estate:

LEE TO LEE: Know all men by these presant that we Henry Lee, Junior of
Westmoreland County in the State of Virginia and Matilda Lee wife of the
said Henry Lee, Junior are held and firmly bound unto Richard Henry Lee,
Francis Lightfoot Lee and Philip Richard Fendall and Elizabeth his wife,
Administrators of Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq. late of the County aforesaid de-
ceased, in the full and Just sum of Twenty thousand pounds, Specie, to be
paid to the said Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee and Philip Richard

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241

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

Fendall and Elizabeth his wife, their certain Attorney, Executors, Administra-
tors or Assigns, To the which payment well and truly to be made and done, we
bind ourselves our heirs, Executors and Administrators in and for the whole
Jointly and Severally firmly by these present, Sealed with our Seal and dated
this eighteenth day of May, one thousand Seven hundred and Eighty two —

The Condition of the above Obligation is such that whereas the said Henry
Lee, Junior hath Intermarried with the said Matilda Lee and both of them are
desirous that partition be presently made of the estate of the said Philip Lud-
weli Lee, between his children and whereas there may be many debts, dues and
demands upon and owing from the said Estate, by reason of which damage
and injury may Accrue to the said Richd. Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee
and Philip Richard Fendall and Elizabeth his wife Administrators as aforesaid
if they should deliver up the said Matilda’s Moeity of the said Estate before
such debts, dues & demand be finally settled, adjusted and paid. Now if the
said Henry Lee, Junior and Matilda his wife, do and shall well and truly
satisfy and pay or cause to be satisfied and paid, such full and just proportion
of all such debts dues and demands as may or shall be due from them according
to the part of the Estate that shall be delivered up by the Administrators afore-
said. And also shall in every respect and respects whatsoever will and truly
save harmless and indemnify the said administrators each and every of them
from or for any injury that might accrue or fall upon them the said Adminis-
trators or any of them by or for so delivering the said Matilda’s proportion of
her father’s Estate to her and her husband aforesaid, then the above obligation
to be void, or else to stand remain and be full force and Virtue in Law.

Signed Sealed & delivered

in presence of —

Richd. Parker. Henry Lee, Jun.

Jno. Legg. Mda. Lee.

At a Court held for Westmoreland County the 27th day of August 1782
This Bond was proved by the oath of Richard Parker a Witness thereto and
ordered to be Recorded. R. Bernard, C. W. C.1

There were hundreds of tillable acres in the uplands of Stratford, and
wide, fertile plains extended on the plateau south and east of the Great
House. Portions of these lands, it appears, Colonel Harry leased to
"small farmers.” From early times there had evidently been tenants on
Stratford properties, but not to the extent they appear during the
thirty-six years Light-Horse Harry Lee was master there. Whether any
cash rent was ever charged or collected for the various Stratford farms
is a question.

A characteristic act of Colonel Harry was the appointment some years
later of his namesake, Henry Welden, to be overseer of Stratford.
Henry Welden could neither read nor write. He was born and brought
up at Stratford, was evidently entirely without training or equipment of

‘Westmoreland County, Virginia, Records, Inventories & Accts. Book Sixth, page 198.

242

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

any sort to manage a plantation; but he was the son of Light-Horse
Harry’s former orderly who had accompanied his colonel from the Caro-
linas to Stratford when he came to marry Matilda. Nothing henceforth
was too good for Welden and Welden’s children. "The old Earl,” as
the children called him, was given a house at Stratford and a living for
the rest of his days. In the manuscript" written by Charles Carter Lee
much light is thrown upon this period of Stratford’s history; Carter Lee
tells the story in his own words:

How well I remember him when he had become old George Welden; with
his hale complexion & his long grey locks, & how impressed I used to be with
his affection for my father, whose hand, after a return from a long absence, I
once saw him kiss. He was a great talker & not more averse than Nestor to
enlarge on the achievements of his youth. He used to say that he was never
of any great service to his Colonel until he was ’specially opposed to Lord
Cornwallis; but then he helped him powerfully. For the Col: knew nothing
about Lords, but he (being an Englishman) knew all about them in the old
country; & could put the Col: up to their ways, & did it accordingly. . . .

. . . He became one of the happy tenantry of Stratford, among whom (I
think) he married, & where I knew him in my boy hood —

"begirt with growing infancy Daughters & sons of beauty.”

He was so happy as to be a great admirer of the beauty of his wife "bloused
with health” as were her cheeks, which he was fond of comparing to full
blown roses, but which a gay young visiter at Stratford used to attempt to dark
his praises of by begging to substitute hollyhocks for roses,- — an emendment,
which I think, was generally concurred in, but which the fond husband insisted
with that "faith whose martyrs, are” perhaps more often of ridicule, than of
"the broken heart.” The aspirations to learning of one of his sons, (Henry,
probably named after my father) were the humblest I ever heard of. He
aspired to be an overseer, & being asked by the pu[r]poses to employ him as
such if he could write — most animately replied, "No! but I can keep a tally
with a pen.” The ingenuousness of manner & the fun of the matter, so allevi-
ated the objection arising from his want of every clerical accomplishment, that
he obtained the coveted office. I know his employer was familiar with Mar-
mion, & perhaps thought the old Dou[g] lass’s objections to that hero were
not so rediculous as they are generally accounted.

"I never liked his courtly parts
I never liked his clerkly arts.

Thanks to St: Bothan! son of mine
Save Jarl, could never write a line.”

The tenantry of Stratford would never have incurred the displeasure of the
old Earl by any such accomplishments. . . .

The picture plainly shows the friendly, "easy-going,” unbusinesslike,
and more or less sentimental aspect of the management of Stratford

’Original Lee document. Photostat collection. Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

243

Plantation in this regime of the fifth generation of the Lees. It was,
however, a welcome contrast to the severe and dictatorial rule of Ma-
tilda’s father prior to his marriage to Elizabeth Steptoe.

Stratford was too isolated to permit a frequent interchange of social
visits such as prevailed among the families living in the great houses on
James River. The families McCarty, of Pope’s Creek Plantation, the
Washingtons, of Bridges’ Creek and Bushfield, and the Carters, Fitz-
hughs, and Turners seem to have been among the neighbors most fre-
quently associated with the Lees in this as in the subsequent generations.
Most of Stratford’s visitors during the first years when Colonel Harry
was master appear to have been his old soldiers of the Legion. Many of
them, destitute after the war, sought out their beloved colonel at Strat-
ford. They had no other place to go for succor; they had no other man
to whom they could turn who would make their cause his own.

Thomas Boyd relates how Lee procured for the Virginians of his
Legion an equal share of bounties which were distributed by the state
for men of the Virginia line. In his Light Horse Harry Lee he also de-
scribes a damage suit wrongfully instituted in the courts against one of
the colonel’s legionaries and tells how Lee adjusted the matter by tak-
ing it directly to General Washington.

Even had Colonel Harry been seriously disposed to turn farmer, con-
ditions and people conspired to claim his time for other interests than
his own. Naturally concerned in political affairs, he rode long distances
to attend meetings. He must have been a picturesque figure in West-
moreland as he cantered over the countryside on his thoroughbred
mount followed by his retinue of dogs. Despite Matilda’s tempering
hand there was, no doubt, at this period of his life a wildness in Harry
Lee’s nature, a spirit of bravado, quick temper, and unrestrained speech
learned in camp and battlefield. Color was given this tradition and
serious harm done to his reputation by absurd tales. One of these
anecdotes appeared in the Maryland Gazette, July 8, 1785. It is repro-
duced here because it evidently had wide circulation and tended to
form and crystallize an adverse public opinion of what was merely a
superficial, passing phase in any young soldier’s career. It relates to one
of Lee’s political jaunts to Williamsburg:

. . . Another time his Excellency [Lee] got a severe drubbing, which seemed
to be intended as a mark of justice for his impiety and blasphemy. He was once
riding to Williamsburgh, to attend the Assembly, and as usual, was accom-
panied by a number of dogs, among which was one whom he called by the
name of our Saviour. A few miles from Williamsburgh, he fell in with a man.

244

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

who eyed this dog with particular attention, and at last demanded if he
would sell him. "Sell my dog! no,” replied Lee, "what do you mean by that?”
— The man, however, taking Lee, from his dress, to be no way his superior,
continued to press him, and offered so large a sum, as to raise the General’s
curiosity to ask the man for what purpose he was so anxious for the dog,
"Why,” replied he, "I want him to fight the devil” — . Lee, who from the name
he had given the dog supposed the fellow meant to insult him, threatened to
cain him. The man returned the compliment by a torrent of abuse; and Lee
was irritated to strike him; which the fellow returned with such interest, that
the General, on his arrival at Williamsburgh, was confined some days in his
room by a variety of colours which arose round his eyes, and which, though
esteemed ornaments by the Indians, are considered in a different light by us.
On enquiry, the man proved to be the master of a puppet shew, and having
lost the dog, which used to attack his infernal majesty, had endeavoured to
procure Lee’s for that use; having no idea that the animal’s name was so
apropos.3

This story doubtless reached Colonel Harry’s kinswoman, Alice Lee
Shippen in Philadelphia, for she wrote her son, who at this time was
studying law at the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg:
"My dear Tommy I have just heard some anecdotes of Gen. Lee that
make highly improper you should visit or be seen with him. His pro-
fanity has always been an objection & his imprudence makes it alto-
gether wrong for any person who wou’d be tho’t a whig to be intimate
or of choice with him. . . .”4

Harry and Matilda Lee’s first child was a son, born late in 1784. He
was named for General Nathanael Greene, under whom his father had
served in the Carolinas and Georgia. Within the next three years Ma-
tilda bore two other children, Philip Ludwell and Lucy Grymes, who
was named for Lee’s mother. Nathanael Greene Lee died in early in-
fancy.

More and more Colonel Harry became immersed in politics. On
November 15, 1785, by joint ballot of both houses, he was elected a
delegate to serve in Congress, "from the time of his appointment until
the first Monday in November, 1786.” The signature of Governor
Patrick Henry was on this document as it had been on Lee’s initial ap-
pointment as captain of one of the cavalry troops in Theodorick Bland’s
regiment in the Continental Army nine years before.

As Matilda was just recovering from Lucy’s birth, Colonel Harry
went alone to New York. At length he found a residence that would

3Biographical Anecdotes of the late General Lee. Department of Records and Research,
Williamsburg Holding Corporation.

4Shippen Papers.

Across the broad expanse of fragrant gardens was the family burial ground of the Strat-
ford Lees.

246 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

be comfortable for "his Mrs. Lee.” During April, 1786, Matilda left
Stratford with the children and several servants for New York. It was
a long and arduous journey for the fragile young mother and the chil-
dren. When they reached Alexandria and stopped for a visit with
Matilda’s mother, it was decided to leave the baby with her. Matilda
then proceeded on the tedious drive north. Colonel Harry met his
family at Chester, and at once placed Matilda under Dr. Shippen’s care,
for their next stop was at Shippen House in Philadelphia.

The affectionate relations between Colonel Harry and his wife’s
mother are apparent from this unpublished letter he wrote her from
Philadelphia, May 6, 1786, which contains a postscript in Matilda’s
hand:

The joy of my present moments is heightened by the conviction I feel of
the pleasure your maternal tenderness will experience in knowing that your
dear Matilda & Grandson are safe with me. I met them at Chester on Thursday
last very well, but fatigued. They arrived here on friday. Phil was inoculated
the same evening & all of the servants — We set out on tuesday for New York,
where we shall be on the following thursday. Doctor Shippen has us under his
care & promises safety to his patients. My next letter I trust will inform of
the recovery of your favorite, who is universally admired — our love to Flora
God bless you

Yours affectionately

H. Lee Junr
May 6th 86
Philadelphia

I opened this to see if my gentleman had been explicit. Kiss my dear Lucy
for me. Matilda.

Addressed: Mrs Fendall.5

This postscript is the only fragment of Matilda’s original handwriting
that has ever been found, with the exception of the names written on the
pane of glass at Stratford.

The Lees lived for some time in New York. During the summer they
made several trips to the springs in the upper part of the state for
Matilda’s benefit. Colonel Harry wrote from Albany to one of their
Westmoreland friends, John James Maund, July 23, of this year:
dear sir

I met here yesterday y.r let.r of the 5th on our return from Balston springs
the waters whereof are in high repute & were prescribed by Mrs Lees physician
as indispensible to her. Much time & money have been appropriated to this
trip which has not answered all our hopes, tho Mrs L is better & if her condi-
tion will permit, we shall reach home early in Sep.tr, soon after which my long

r’Original unpublished letter to Mrs. Fendall from Henry Lee, Junior, Philadelphia, May 6,
1786. Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

247

afflicted wife will reach the point which will decide her fate & if she shall
acquire strength to go well thro her delivery, I may be rewarded for the ex-
ertions so constantly given for 8 months toward her restoration. At any other
period such a sickness would have been more tolerable but in my present
condition the calamity is great, [for] it stops my personal attention to the
business which so necessarily engages me. Lucy & my children are well & have
generally been so.G

There were frequent visits to Philadelphia, where the Lees stayed at
Shippen House. Dr. Shippen’s utmost skill was called upon to restore
Matilda. By this time family cares, anxieties, and responsibilities had
no doubt quieted Colonel Harry’s exuberant spirits to such a degree
that he no longer shocked his pious cousin, Mrs. Alice Lee Shippen, by
"his profanity and imprudence.” He even appears to have favorably
impressed these hospitable kinspeople, for he is frequently mentioned
in the Shippen letters and journals. One of these references is in a
letter written November 7, 1787, by Dr. Shippen to Tom, then in Lon-
don:

Col. Harry & Mrs Lee have spent this evening with us in a very friendly
sociable manner, Oysters & Eggs our Repast — Mr & Mrs Bingham called in the
evening & sat with us about an hour, Mrs Lee had never seen her, was much
delighted with her indeed & Mrs B. thought Mrs Lee very like what your
Mamma was — your Letters pleased them much, The Col speaks highly of
your abilities & enviable prospects — They set off tomorrow for Virginia —
Nancy behaved like a Virginian like her Mother.

Good night my dr Boy

In April, 1786, Harry Lee gives an interesting and self-revealing
analysis of national and world conditions in a letter to his brother
Richard Bland Lee:

. . . our prospects in Europe are unpromising and will be more so in pro-
portion to our insignificance, the negotiations with the Barbary powers will I
fear be ineffectual. G Britain knows our weakness & will not be operated on
by fear, the only passion in her mind which can ever be used to our advantage
— The court of France is engaged in commercial projects all pointing to her
specially, and will terminate in aggrandizement and consequence to that pow-
erful nation — Spain initiates her plans, and aids her views — the emperor &
the King of prussia are quarrelling about Bavaria — the United provinces are
sill [still] out of humour with their Statholder, who is patronized by his cousin
of prussia.

Could we place ourselves on a respectable footing, we might negotiate
among these discordant powers to advantage, but we are truely contemptible,
and therefore not regarded.7

“Original unpublished letter, photostat collection, Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.
’Collection of original Lee letters and documents of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation.

1.5

mm m

fummons with mingled emotions of indignation
at the unmerited iil-trea'ment of his country, and
of a determination once more to rifk his all in
her defence.

Tut annunciation of thcfe feelings, in his
affecting letter to the Prefident, accepting the
command of the army, concludes his official
conduct.

First in war, Ftrfl in peace, and firft in the
hearts of his countrymen, he was fecond to none
in the humble and endearing feenes of private
life : Pious, juft, humane, temperate, and ftneere ;
uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example
was as edifying to all around him as were the
die ft s of that example lading.

To his equals he was condefcending ; to his
inferiors kind ; and to the dear object of his affec-
tions exemplariiy tender : Correct throughout,
vice fhuddered in his prefence, and virtue always
felt his fodering hand ; the purity of his private
character gave effulgence to his public virtues.

U is lad feene comported w ith the whole tenor
of his life : Although in extreme pain, not a figh,
not a groan efcaped .him ; and with undidurbed
ferenity heclofed his well fpent life. Such was the
man America has lod ! Such was the man for
whom our nation mourns !

Methinks I fee his auguft image, and hear,
falling from his venerable lips, thcfe deep finking
word

“ CEASF., Sons of America, lamenting our
reparation : Go on, and confirm by your v.ifdotn
the fruits of our joint councils, joint efforts, and
common dangers. Reverence religion ; diffufe
knowledge throughout your land j patronize the
arts and fcicnces ; let Liberty and Order be
infeparable companions ; control party fpirit, the
bane of free government *, obferve good faith to,
and cultivate peace with all nations ; fhut up
every avenue to foreign intluence ; contract rather
than extend national connexion ; rely on your-
felves only-rBc American in thought and deed.
Thus will you give immortality to that union,
which was the condant object of my terreltrial
labours : Thus will you preferve undidurbed to
the iated podcritv, the felicity of a people to me
mod dear ; and thus will you fupply (if my hap-
pinefs is now aught to you) the only vacancy in
the round of pure blifs high Heaven bellows. *’

« CEASE,

Closing paragraph of Henry Lee's oration on the death of General Washington.

Another excerpt from this unpublished letter shows that bitter ex-
perience had given Lee keen eyesight:

. . . Do you persevere in your withdrawal] from the assembly, who will
succeed you. of what complexion is the body of the people with respect to
their public men & public affairs. Do they impute the evils which menace their
natural life to their leaders, or their own vice and prodigality — Do they yet see
the necessity of a government adequate to its object, or still prefer the name to
substance.

Are they not apprised by this time, that one source of their complicated
misfortunes is the invitation which the state and nature of their debts offer to
all orders to relinquish every profession and place their attention to jobbings
& paper securitys — agriculture commerce and every other proper ground to
render a people wealthy and respectable yields to the allurements of this
vice — they must stop it, or they are undone. It is worse than the plague to the

[248]

THE THIRD MASTER OE STRATFORD

249

body, and more pestilential if possible, for it now comprehends both good &
bad. It is high time that our people be coerced to habits of industry, otherwise
our produce will be of no consequence — for the nations of Europe are all
bending their application to the culture of the land, and our only chance for
existence, is to be able to undersell, & to make up in quantity what we loose in
price.

One of the congressional committees on which the new delegate
from Virginia sat was that appointed to examine the progress made in
the surveying and disposing of lands in the western territory and to
consider alterations and amendments for the safety and development
of this territory. Thus to Harry Lee, among others, was entrusted the
continuation of a national enterprise in which members of his family
had been engaged since the days of the Lancaster Treaty.

Colonel Harry urged emphatically, as did President Lee, the protec-
tion of the frontiers from Indian attack. He initiated the plan for the
organization of "the Indian Department.” The minutes of the com-
mittee include the motion in Lee’s handwriting presented June 30, 1786 :s

That the executive of the state of Virginia be informed, that Congress,
desirous to give the most ample protection in their power to the citizens of the
United States, have directed their commandant on the Ohio, to detach two
companies of infantry to the rapids of the Ohio, and request that the executive
will give orders to the militia of that district to hold themselves in readiness
to unite with the federal troops, in such operations as the Officer commanding
the troops of the United States may judge necessary, for the protection of the
frontiers, who is hereby authorized and directed, in case of necessity, to apply
for the same to the Amount not exceeding one thousand; And that Congress
now have under their deliberation the organization of the Indian department,
for the purpose of extending to the frontiers regular and certain security
against future designs of the Indians.

Another motion in Lee’s handwriting, dated June 28, 1786, inaugu-
rated at this Congress the plan for the formal observance of the anni-
versary of the Declaration of Independence;

Resolved, That tuesday next, being the Anniversary of the declaration of
Independence, there shall be a public Levee at the President’s house, from the
hours of twelve to two, to receive the ordinary congratulations, and that the
Secretary of Congress take Order for due communication thereof.

Lee set in motion a national memorial to General Nathanael Greene.
Throughout his entire life George Washington and Nathanael Greene
were his great heroes; and his admiration for their personal qualities and
their military skill was boundless. Worship of these two men was al-
most a religion with him. How indebted to them the nation was none

8Papers, No. 30, folio 117, Library of Congress. Examined for the writer by K. L. Trever.

250

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

knew better than he. His purpose to have the nation honor General
Greene as he did took concrete form at this Congress of 1786.

In Lee’s handwriting is the following motion introduced by him in
committee:9

Resolvd, That a monument be Erected to the Memory of N. Greene esqr. at
the seat of the federal government with the following inscription:

Sacred to the memory of N. Greene, esqr., who departed this life on the
19 of June 86, aged — , late Major General in the service of the U. S. and
commander of their army in the Sou. department.

"Guilford — Cambden — Eutaw
"judgement Firmness Glory

The Congress of the U. S. in honor of his patriotism valor and ability have
erected this monument.”

Reported from committee July 12, the motion was passed August 12
in the following form:

Report of Committee (Lee chairman) adopted in following resolution: "Re-
solved that a monument be erected to the Memory of Nathan[a]el Greene,
esquire at the Seat of the federal government, with the following inscription:

Sacred to the Memory of Nathan[a]el Greene, Esqr- a native of the State
of Rhode Island, who died on the 19th of June, 1786, late Major general in
the service of the United States, and commander of their army in the Southern
department.

The United States in Congress Assembled, in honor of his patriotism, valour,
and ability, have erected this Monument.

The monument stands today at Stanton Square in Washington.

The policies to be adopted by the government in reference to the
western country and the free navigation of the Mississippi aroused in-
cessant debate. Lee’s real position in reference to these questions is
given in an unpublished letter dated October 28, 1786, New York, to
an unknown correspondent, probably Madison:

My conduct in the affair you mention has been uniformly in conformity with
my colleague, because we were under instructions & because any opposition
would have been idle, therefore as far as can be known, I have been with Mr-
Henry in this matter.

Had I not been fettered with instructions, I certainly between you & me,
should have taken a different part. These instructions ought to be repealed — I
am so convicted of the policy of the proposed treaty that I am clearly of opinion
on a fair statement of facts two thirds of your house would coincide with me
in sentiment, at the same time I well know that such communications will be
made & insinuations whispered as to forbid any attempt to espouse the true
interest of our country on this subject — not only the interest of the cisalpine
Virginia and indeed their existence as a people is involved in the politics of this
question but the true interest of the transalpine country also. For it is un-

'Papers No. 19, II, folio 513.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

251

questionably true that the western settlements prosperity depends & ought to
depend on the prosperity of the atlantic country & grow in proportion thereto
— To push forward the infant at the expence of the parent is wrong —

A few weeks later, at the time of Shays’s rebellion, Harry Lee wrote
his brother Richard Bland:

11 Nov. 86 N[ew] York

Now for politics — the East is in tumult, the dreadful appeal is too probable
— preparations are making by the Insurgents with assiduity — measures are also
taken by government lately with decision & firmness — It is suggested that
Vermont & British America soften the madness of the malcontents by their
councils and promises — Whether we shall conquer this effort or whether it
will conquer us, depends on the pecuniary aid of the tranquil states — It is cer-
tain if Massachusetts yeilds, that the victors will extend their conquest, & very
destructive consequences will pervade from that victory the whole empire-
be [ ?] mob government for a time, which will terminate in despotism among
ourselves or from abroad —

I rejoice in your decided overthrow of paper — To be sure the expedient of
nominal money is getting so [ ?] ridiculous that common sense begins to abhor
it & therefore the vote of the delegates of Virginia is not surprizing — still it is
grateful & will be I hope nationally useful.

In a let.r of the date of your last let.r Madison tells me that my congressional
conduct relative to the Mississippi navigation, or rather the proposed treaty
with Spain is carped at. I cannot brook the dishonor, which he suggests may
befall, me, altho my intended & wished for return home invites the disgrace.

A community ought to be tender of the reputation of her servants, I expected
delicacy as well as justice from my country, or I never would have risked a
Reputation dearer to me, than life on the precarious tenure of a democratic
assembly. If I am deceivd I must submit, but my submission will be bottomed
on necessity, not on respect to her caprices — nor will I forgive the authors of
the assassination, or forget every proper moment if announcing my remem-
brance. It is wonderful that you should have been silent on this head — It
proves their cunning & your lethargy —

Turberville writes two letters to me & says nothing on the subject —

I hope imaginary doctrines & western prejudices will not govern the votes
of my country — If they do, we shall suffer bitterly, but our sufferings will not
be long, for full information will put all things right.

Farewel. H. Lee Junr

Not until December of 1786 did the Lee family come back to
Stratford. They drove overland in the midst of severe snowstorms. Col-
onel Harry wrote his brother Richard Bland Lee:

"My dear Matilda & my young Heir experienced every hardship
from roads & weather for three weeks which time was taken up to reach
Alexandria from New York, & we were all in an act of being buryed in
the waters of potomac — a noble burying ground.”

252 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The following May, Matilda’s fourth child — a son — was born and
named for his father. He was the fourth Henry in the family.

Probably to his surprise, Colonel Harry was reelected to Congress
for the session of 1787. Sometime during that summer Matilda again
made the long journey to New York with her babies, leaving Philip,
their eldest son, in care of the housekeeper at Stratford. He is mentioned
by his cousin Lucinda Lee in her journal of a Young Lady of Virginia:

"We brought to Chantilly Col° H. Lee’s little Boy. He has stayed at
Stratford since his Papa and Mama went to New York. I assure you he
is a very line child.”

An amusing reference to the family in New York is made by their
bachelor kinsman, Arthur Lee, in a letter to the Shippens. Arthur ap-
parently does not relish visiting where babies and politics are combined:

". . .1 presume you were all very happy at Whitehill & [illegible]
above all who had the happiness of hearing calamitous disappointments,
vexation — torment — torture — [illegible] — , Matilda crying, Nancv
pouting — Harry Lee ranting — delightful group for a social party.. . ,”10

After Congress adjourned and the family returned to Stratford, Ma-
tilda’s mother and sister visited them for the winter. Flora was engaged
to be married to her first cousin, Ludwell Lee of Chantilly, and the wed-
ding was to take place at Stratford in January, 1788. From the descrip-
tion of Flora given by her cousin, Lucinda Lee, in the journal of a
Young Lady of Virginia, she was far from being as beautiful or at-
tractive as Matilda:

Well, my dear, they are come, and, as I expected, brought Flora with them.
She is very genteal, and wears monstrous Bustles. Her face is just as it always
was. You, my dearest, that posses a great deal of Sencibility, would have sup-
posed she would have been delighted to see me — far from it, I assure you. She
saluted me just as if I had been a common acquaintance, and was not. I thought,
at all glad to see me; but I suppose it is fashionable to affect indifference. I
hope, my dearest, we shall always stear clear of such unnatural Fashions. She
received Nancy in the same manner. . . .

The records of this fifth generation of the Lees show an odd sequence
of marriages, connecting their family with that of the family Wash-
ington. The Washingtons of Bushfield, the beautiful country seat just
below Chantilly, were intimates of all the Lee households of Westmore-
land and Prince William. Young Bushrod Washington, the general’s
favorite nephew and heir of Mount Vernon, received his elementary
education at Chantilly under the same tutors who instructed the sons
of Richard Henry Lee. In later years when he studied law in Philadel-

10Shippen Papers. Lloyd P. Shippen.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

253

phia, he worshipped at the shrine of Alice Lee’s daughter, Nancy Ship-
pen. Mildred Washington, his only sister, married Richard Henry Lee’s
eldest son, Thomas Ludwell Lee, and they lived at Park Gate in Prince
William County, not far from Leesylvania. Richard Henry’s daughter,
Mary, married Colonel William Augustine Washington. His younger
daughter, Nancy, became the wife of Colonel Harry’s brother, Charles
Lee, attorney general in the cabinets of Washington and Adams.
Another daughter of Chantilly, Sarah Lee, married her cousin, Edmund
Jennings Lee, who was also a brother of Colonel Harry. Mount Vernon
and Bushfield became more closely linked than ever with Stratford,
Chantilly, and Leesylvania when Richard Henry’s daughter Hannah
married Corbin Washington of Walnut Hill and their son, John Augus-
tine Washington, succeeded Bushrod as the owner of Mount Vernon.
By many of the Lees it was considered that Mount Vernon was but re-
verting to its original Lee ownership when the grandson of Richard
Henry became its proprietor.

Ludwell Lee, whom Flora married, was the second son of Richard
Henry and Anne Aylett Lee. He was born on October 13, 1760. After
several years of home instruction he was sent with his older brother
Thomas to school in England. He returned to Virginia during the
Revolution and served as an aid to Lafayette. After the war he studied
law at the College of William and Mary, about the same time his Phila-
delphia cousin, Tom Shippen, was a student there, under Chancellor
Wythe. Later he was elected to the Virginia legislature.

January 23, 1788 was the date of his marriage to Flora, co-heiress
with Matilda of Stratford. This was the third family wedding to take
place in the Great House.

Flora and Ludwell established their home near Alexandria, where
they built a house on the crest of Shuter’s Hill. A lofty pile of masonry,
the Masonic Memorial to Washington, today stands on the site of their
home and over the unmarked graves of both Flora and Nancy Lee, wife
of Attorney General Charles Lee. In later years Ludwell moved to
Loudoun County and built the stately Georgian house near Leesburg
commemorating Portia’s estate in its name, Belmont.11

With the coming of June, 1788, Harry Lee was in attendance as a
delegate to the Virginia Convention, called in Richmond to ratify the
Constitution of the United States. The leading men of Virginia’s ju-

uBelmont is in its original state today and is the home of the former Secretary of War, Pat-
rick Hurley, and Mrs. Hurley.

Nancy Lee (Mrs. Charles Lee), daughter of Richard Henry Lee: from the original portrait
by Sully, now in the possession of Mrs. foseph Packard.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

255

diciary were there with those of the political world of that day, among
them: John Marshall, James Madison, Bushrod Washington, George
Wythe, John Randolph, Benjamin Harrison, William Cabell, Edmund
Pendleton, Patrick Henry, and George Mason.

The stand taken by Lee for ratification would in itself make him an
outstanding figure in the nation’s history if he had never done anything
else. It is recorded word for word in the minutes of the convention. Ex-
cerpts and running comment from these records tell a dramatic story:

Wednesday June 5 . . . Lee answers opposition to the Constitution by em-
phasizing "the necessity of coolly and calmly to examine and fairly and im-
partially to determine.” He objects to the introduction of personalities, especi-
ally of Washington; advocates that the Constitution stand "by its own merit.”
He defends the expression "We the people” instead of We the States.” He
attributes the weakness of government, the economic and social chaos then
prevailing and the lack of American prestige abroad, to the Articles, and closes
with the expressed conviction that the Constitution is the best solution for
the happiness of the American people.

Monday, June 9 . . . Lee replies to Patrick Henry who he says is "throwing
those bolts, which he has so peculiar a dexterity at discharging,” and makes
fun of "those luminous points which he has entertained us with” in his "previ-
ous harangues.” Lee defends the republicanism of the friends of the Consti-
tution, the militia clause, and the method of adoption provided. He opposes
tender laws as worse than "Pandora’s box,” and says in conclusion: "The
people of America, sir, are one people. I love the people of the north, not
because they have adopted the constitution, but because I fought with them
as my countrymen, and because I consider them as such. Does it follow from
hence that I have forgotten my attachment to my native state? In all local
matters I shall be a Virginian. In those of general nature, I shall not forget
that I am an American.”

On Wednesday, June 11 . . .he chides Mason for "irregular and disorderly
manner” pointing out that "ridicule is not the test of truth” and that he "that
can raise the loudest laugh is [not] the soundest reasoner.”

Thursday, June 12 . . Lee defends his record in Congress with the Jay-
Gardoqui negotiations relative to the opening of the Mississippi. Saturday,
June 14 . . . He points out contradictory arguments of the antiratificationists.
Monday, June 23 Lee makes his last speech, closing with: "Then, sir, I pray
you remember, and the gentlemen in opposition not to forget, that should these
impious scenes commence, which my honorable friend might abhor, and which
I execrate, whence and how they begun. God of Heaven avert from my country
the dreadful curse; but if the madness of some, and the vice of others, should
risk the awful appeal, I trust the friends of this paper on your table, conscious
of the justice of their cause, conscious of the integrity of their views, and recol-
lecting their uniform moderation will meet the afflicting call with that firmness
and fortitude, which become men summoned to defend what they conceive to
be the true interest of their country, and will prove to the world, that although

256

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

they boast not in words of love of country, and affect for liberty, still they are
not less attached to these invaluable objects, than their vaunting opponents,
and can with alacrity and resignation encounter every difficulty and danger in
defense of them.”

While Lee did not speak as frequently or as long as did other promi-
nent men in the Convention, his sincerity of conviction and his steadfast-
ness of purpose made him an important factor in helping to bring about
Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution.

The way was now open for the next most important step in the opera-
tion of the Federal Government, the election of its first president.
When the Continental Congress convened, Harry Lee was present and
delivered his credentials July 29, 1788. As the summer passed without
definite or constructive action, Lee was beside himself with anxiety for
the country’s fate and with impatience over the futile delays and end-
less obstructions to definite action. Finally he could hold himself in
check no longer. On Friday, September 12, 1788, he made this motion:

Whereas longer delay in the previous arrangements necessary to put into
operation the federal government, may produce national injury, Resolved, That
the first Wednesday in January next, be the time for appointing the electors in
the several states, which before the said day shall have ratified the said con-
stitution; and that the first Wednesday in February next, be the day for the
electors to assemble in their respective states, and vote for a president; and
that the first Wednesday in March next, be the time, and the present seat of
Congress, the place for commencing proceedings under the said constitution.
[This motion in substantially these words was adopted Sept. 13, 1788. J12

Coincident with this motion Lee wrote to General Washington:

. . . my anxiety is extreme that the new government may have an auspicious
beginning — To effect this & perpetuate a nation formed under your auspices,
it is certain that again you will be called forth. The same principles of devo-
tion to the good of mankind which has invariably governed your conduct, will
no doubt continue to rule your mind however opposite the consequences may
be, to your repose and happiness. Without you the govt- can have but little
chance of success, & the people of that happiness which its prosperity must
yield.

Many similar letters had been written to Washington. Hamilton and
Madison were among the friends who had long pleaded with him to
accept this office. But he had been reluctant. Then came this effectively
phrased, earnest, and sincere appeal from his brave and devoted young
subordinate of the Revolution. Was it this plea that won Washington’s
consent and gave the nation its greatest man for its first President? It
might readily have been so.

12 The Journals of the American Congress from 1774 to 1788. Vol. 4, Washington, 1823, p.
865.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

257

Before the adjournment of Congress, Lee took part in other con-
structive measures. He urged the erection of the necessary public build-
ings for the accommodation of Congress at the new Federal capital on
the Potomac at Georgetown. He advocated improvements in the trans-
portation of mail. His interest continued in building up "the western
territory” and in providing machinery for negotiating treaties and the
adjustment of differences with Indian tribes.

But his stand for the ratification of the Constitution, as well as cer-
tain other measures, rendered him so unpopular with his constituents
that he was not returned to Congress.

Back at Stratford Matilda’s continued ill health was becoming a
source of desperate concern to Colonel Harry. He wrote Richard Henry
that Matilda "continues very low and subject to fevers every now and
then, difficulty of breathing and great debility of body. Our invaluable
Mrs. Fendall is arrived in Baltimore.” Matilda was dependent on her
mother’s solicitude and the affection which she returned.

But Matilda’s mother was gravely ill and the voyage from Alexan-
dria had made her "too weak to proceed hither. Mrs. Lee wishes to
go and see her mamma & altho I know no good can be done to either &
some injury may result to Mrs. Lee from the attempt yet I cannot quiet
her frequent uneasiness only by commencing the trip.”

Mrs. Fendall suffered from an incurable disease. Colonel Harry
planned, therefore, to take Matilda by boat to Alexandria to ''our best
of mothers.” Suddenly the message came that Mrs. Fendall was dead.
Matilda was prostrated by the news. After the funeral she was ill for
many weeks and her husband remained in Alexandria with her. He
wrote James Madison: "You have heard of the loss we have met with
in the death of Mrs- Fendall — better for her to be sure had this event
taken place sooner & altho’ we are convinced of this truth yet our afflic-
tion is immoderate. Poor Mrs- Lee is particularly injured by it, as the
affliction of mind adds to the infirmity of her body. ...”

Even in the midst of his family anxieties Colonel Harry was not too
busy to be of service to his hero, Washington. On March 14, 1789, he
wrote from Alexandria:

My dear General.

I shall leave your deed with Mr. C Lee, after having procured the most prob-
able attendants on the general court, to witness it (of which he will be one) .

As the hour is at hand, when you must again leave your country & my de-
parture this evening or tomorrow prevents my bidding you adieu in person, I
beg leave now to offer my most sincere wishes for the continuation of your

258

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

health and for prosperity to your administration of the general govt-

It seems decreed by fate that you should be our Numa as well as our Romulus
— Certainly great difficulty3 lay in your way but they will diminish I trust, as
they are approached.

Our nation may be made happy & respectable, supported as you will be by
the sincere affection & high confidence of the body of the people, I anticipate
with delight our approaching felicity and your new glory — They are entwined
together, & I hope will never be cut asunder.

It would be arrogant in me to make a tender of my services on this occasion,
and nothing but the unalterable respect and attachment which I feel towards
you, would induce me to mention it.

Sincere and invariable in these sentiments, it will afford me great satisfaction
to manifest whenever I can be useful how much I admire your character &
how truely I am devoted to the promotion of the common weal.

Mr3 Lee begs me to make her respects to Mr3 Washington and again to ex-
press the weight of gratitude she feels for the friendly attention she has been
pleased to honor her with, during her confinement here.

I am my dear general
always & truely, your friend
& ob t serv.t

Henry Lee.13

Gen.1 Washington

Washington replied instantly and in a tone of unusual warmth and
affection:

Mount Vernon, March 14th, 1789-

[Col. H. Lee]

My Dear Sir — Your letter of this date, was put into my hands on my return
from a ride, at the moment dinner was waiting, for which reason I have only
time to express in a single word my love and thanks for the sentiments con-
tained in it; and to assure you that my best wishes, in which Mrs. Washington
unites, are presented to Mrs. Lee, and that with sincere regard and affection,

I am ever yours,

Geo. Washington.14

P.S. If we have any thing which can be of service to Mrs. Lee, on her passage,
please to command it.

With the passing of summer and winter Matilda’s condition showed
no improvement. Cancelling all his business and political projects,
Colonel Harry devoted himself to her care. He decided to try the waters
of medicinal springs in western Virginia. In a letter to Madison from
Stratford, March 4, 1790, shortly before they set out on the long jour-
ney, he said, "Mrs. Lee’s health is worse and worse, I begin to fear the
worst. She begs you would present her most affecy- to her friends Mrs.

"Papers of George Washington, Doc. 73, Vol. 242, Library of Congress.
uThe Campaign of 1781 in the Carolina Lee, H. Appendix XLIV.

THE THIRD MASTER OF STRATFORD

259

Colden and Hamilton and unites with me in best wishes for your health
and happiness.”

But the waters could not cure Matilda, and Colonel Harry brought
her home again to Stratford. On June 12, 1790, he wrote to Washing-
ton, "My long afflicted Mrs. Lee is now very ill & I fear cannot be
preserved — ”

Grievously ill though she was, Matilda was aroused by the confusion
of her husband’s finances to the necessity of preserving Stratford and
certain other estates for their children. It was undoubtedly at her sug-
gestion that on August 10, 1790, the following deed of trust was made:

Between Henry Lee of Stratford, Esq. and Matilda his wife of the first part,
Philip Ludwell Lee, Henry Lee, and Lucy Grymes Lee, children of said Henry
and Matilda his wife of the second part and Richard Bland Lee and Ludwell
Lee, Esq. of the third part, the said Henry Lee and Matilda his wife for con-
sideration in the said Indenture mentioned did by the said Indenture Bargain
and Sell unto Richard Bland Lee and Ludwell Lee and their heirs all the land
and property of the said Henry Lee and Matilda his wife situated lying and
being in the County of Westmoreland known by the name of Stratford tract,
the upper and lower Cliffs and also the land the property of the said Henry
Lee and Matilda his wife lying in the County of Lairfax, &c. ... to the
said Richard Bland Lee and Ludwell Lee and their heirs in trust for such uses
intent and purposes and with and under such provision and agreement as in the
aforesaid Indenture are compressed — that is to say to the use and behoof of
the said Henry Lee and Matilda his wife for and during their natural life and
the life of the longest liver of them after their decease then the said land in the
County of Westmoreland and known by the name of Stratford tract the upper
and lower cliffs &c. to the use of the said Philip Ludwell Lee the eldest son of
the said Henry and Matilda his wife and his heirs and the land in the County
of Loudown known by the name of sugar Lands plantation to the use of the
said Henry Lee youngest son of the said Henry Lee and Matilda his wife and
his heirs and it was further proved in and by the said Indenture that if either
of the said sons should die without issue under the age of 21 years that then
and in that case the lands held for the use of the one so dying should be to the
use and behoof of the surviver and his Heirs and if both should die under age
without issue then the said lands were to be held to and for the use of Lucy
Grymes Lee daughter of the said Henry Lee and Matilda his wife and her heirs
forever &c. . . .

Matilda’s life was fast ebbing. Shortly after placing her name on this
deed of trust, she died at Stratford at the age of twenty-six. Her hus-
band was inconsolable. This "domestic calamity,” as he referred to it,
was the first real personal tragedy of his life.

His friend, General Washington, was near him in his grief as he was
always in every crisis of his life. Washington wrote him from New
York, August 27, 1790, about two weeks after Matilda’s death:

260 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

It is unnecessary to assure you of the interest I take in whatever nearly con-
cerns you. I therefore very sincerely condole with you on your late, and great
losses; but as the ways of Providence are as inscrutable as just, it becomes the
children of it to submit with resignation and fortitude to its decrees as far as
the feelings of humanity will allow, and your good sense will, I am persuaded,
enable you to do this. Mrs. Washington joins me in these sentiments and
with great esteem and regard, I am, my dear Sir, etc.

From Lee’s notation on this letter, "The death of my wife and son,” it
would appear that Matilda died in giving birth to her fifth child, who
did not survive her. In the family burial ground at Stratford bevond the
east wing of the mansion, across the broad expanse of the fragrant gar-
dens, Harry Lee built the vault in which he buried his beloved wife.

BOOK THREE
A CENTURY OF CHANGE
(1790- 1890)

CHAPTER XIII: CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE
COMMONWEALTH

LATE in the fall of that desolate year, 1790, when Harry Lee re-
turned to Richmond as a member of the Assembly, he was made
4 leader of the lower house and chairman of the important Com-
mittee of Propositions and Grievances. With many other Virginians,
he was beginning to feel that the interests of Virginia, her self-respect
as a state, and her political and economic fibre, and indeed that of the
entire South, were being jeopardized by a misinterpretation of the Con-
stitution. As its provisions were translated by the Northern majority and
put into actual operation, they were, he thought, proving to be inimical
to the South. In his frequent letters to James Madison throughout that
year, Lee spoke freely what was in his mind:

. . . [Patrick] Henry already is considered as a prophet, his predictions are
daily verifying. His declaration with respect to the division of interest which
would exist under the Constitution and predominate in all the doings of the
govr- already has been undeniably proved. But we are committed and we cannot
be releived I fear only by disunion. To disunite is dreadful to my mind, but
dreadful as it is, I consider it a lesser evil than union on the present conditions.
I had rather myself submit to all the hazards of war and risk the loss of
everything dear to me in life, than to live under the rule of a fixed insolent
northern majority. At present this is the case, nor do I see any prospect of
alteration or alleviation.

Change of the seat of govt- to the territorial center, direct taxation and the
abolition of gambling systems of finance might and would effect a material
change. But these suggestions are vain and idle. No policy will be adopted
by Congress which does not more or less tend to depress the South and exalt
the North. I have heard it asserted that your vice president should say the
Southern people were found by nature to subserve the convenience and inter-
ests of the North — or in plain words to be slaves to the North — very soon will
his assertion be thoroughly exemplified. How do you feel, what do you think,
is your love for the Constitution so ardent, as to induce you to adhere to it tho
it should produce ruin to your native Country — I hope not, I believe not. . . .

When Madison inquired what Lee thought the attitude of Virginians
was toward the general government, Colonel Harry replied:

I am not interested, only in common with my fellow citizens, and individually
I care not what fiscal policy is pursued. 1 cannot give you any opinion with
tolerable precision on the feelings of our people towards the general gov-
ernment. Living in a very retired part of the country and mixing only with a
few neighbours I have little opportunity of knowing the general mind.

While on the last session of Assembly, I was impressed with a belief that
the enmity was rather encreasing than otherwise. The debates of your house
during this session, I have not seen on any subject but have heard that as far

[263]

264 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

as your intentions have been discovered they are not esteemed on this side
of the Potomac. It seems to me that you must introduce real taxation and bring
the seat of Govt, near the center of territory, or we Southern people must be
slaves in effect, or cut the Gordian Knot at once. By these two measures we
shall be greatly assisted and may be able to bear up, till our encrease in inhabit-
ants may place us nearer equality. . . .

In another letter to Madison, Lee said:

. . . This government which we both admired so much will I fear prove
ruinous in its operation to our native State. Nothing as I said in my letr- the
other day can alleviate our sufferings but the establishment of the permanent
seat near the center of territory & direct taxation. . . .

The position taken some time before by Richard Henry Lee and the
minority group opposing the Constitution as originally framed was once
more in the minds of all Virginians. Had Richard Henry Lee been
right? Many thought that he was. Report of the change in Harry Lee’s
views and ideas circulated throughout the state and his stand was widely
acclaimed. Already he stood in the nation’s eye among the first of the
younger statesmen. He was a member of Congress. He was known to
be an intimate friend of Washington. He had upheld ratification of the
Constitution and, as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Conven-
tion, he had delivered speeches that made him a national figure.

His new attitude toward state rights gave rise to a widespread con-
fidence in Virginia. The people felt that he would prove a bulwark
against Northern aggression. He was constantly on guard against "un-
due influence [from the North] or a latent design inimical to the in-
tention and true spirit of the Constitution.” As he wrote Madison, he
was ready to take up his sword in behalf of his state.

In the ten years that had intervened since the surrender of Cornwallis
at Yorktown, the memory of this and of his other valorous exploits, both
as Lee of the Light-Horse and Lee of the Legion, gathered weight. His
military record was tinged with high adventure, color and romance.
Harry Lee was one of Virginia’s great heroes of the Revolution. This
was remembered now as it had never been before. Lee was offered the
highest honor Virginia could bestow, the office of Governor.

During the first week of November, 1791, a committee of the Vir-
ginia Assembly waited on Harry Lee; and the chairman said:

Sir, we are appointed by the General Assembly to notify you of your elec-
tion to the office of Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth. We feel peculiar
pleasure in conveying this information to you, a pleasure resulting as well
from our personal respect and regard for you as from this reflection,

That whilst the General Assembly have consulted the welfare and dignity
of the Commonwealth in conferring to you this distinguished honor, they

Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia: from the original portrait by Saint-Memin.

266 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

have acknowledged at the same time and in the fullest manner the high sense
which they entertain of you as a soldier and as a citizen.

In accepting the office, Lee said:

I receive with humility and with gratitude the distinguished honor conferred
upon me; to my mind invaluable because it conveys the strongest testimony of
affection and confidence of the country. . . . Accept, Gentlemen, my acknowl-
edgments for the obliging manner in which you have communicated my ap-
pointment and permit me to declare that my heart returns with sincerity the
sentiments of personal respect and regard with which you have been pleased
to honor me.

When Virginia was a Colony, just such an honor had been received by
another master of Stratford — its builder, Thomas Lee. It had come to
him at a time when he, too, was bowed down in sorrow over the death
of his wife. Harry Lee, enduring a similar loss, now entered upon his
first term as Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth of Virginia, an
office to which he was to be twice reelected. So high was he in the
regard of Virginians that he was even spoken of as a possible successor
to President Washington.

From Stratford Colonel Harry moved to the Governor’s Mansion in
Richmond, bringing his children, Philip, Lucy, and Henry, the servants
they would require, equipages and horses. The family had been in
Richmond but a little over a year when, during 1792, the duties of the
governor’s office necessitated a trip to the border. Western Virginia
was a frontier region and communication with eastern points almost im-
possible. Only when Colonel Harry returned to Richmond some weeks
later — the date is not recorded — he learned that Philip had died.

In a letter to Madison he describes this "domestic calamity which stirs
me to the quick. . . .Iam still depressed in my mind and continue to
be the subject of unavailing woe. My son on whom I chiefly rested for
future comfort was suddenly deprived of life during my absence, which
event on the back of what took place two years past has removed me far
from the happy enjoyment of life.”

Philip — heir of Stratford — was the third Philip Ludwell Lee of the
family. Of his three children, Philip was Colonel Harry’s favorite. The
boy evidently resembled his mother, the Divine Matilda. In the minia-
ture that survives, the face is delicate oval, the eyes and hair dark. There
is a haunting quality of sweetness in the child’s expression. Members of
the family say the miniature was never out of Colonel Harry’s possession
until he left the United States for the West Indies.1

1This miniature is owned by Light-Horse Harry Lee’s great-granddaughter, Mrs. Hugh
Antrim of Richmond, Virginia.

The third Philip Ludwell Lee, heir of Stratford : from the original miniature.

268 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Another year passed by. Colonel Harry was reelected to the office of
Chief Magistrate of Virginia.

Shirley-on-the-James was the home of Ann Hill Carter:

. . . dear Shirley. . . . that then, new seat of the Old Carters was the scene
of unbounded hospitality & polished gaiety. Not only the new dwelling house,
but the old Hill mansion, & the Laundry, as it was called in my childhood
(brick building of two stories, & two rooms on a floor, & a passage between
them), were pressed into the service of the many guests — sons & daughters &
their families — nephews neices & friends at propitious seasons filled their
capacities to the utmost. Of course, it was a great place for the exercises of
the archery of "the winged and quivered boy,” & the sighs of his victory often
filled the house & the garden of roses. ... 2

Nancy Carter, as she was called in the family, was Charles Carter’s
child by his second wife, Ann Butler Moore of Chelsea, great-grand-
daughter of Virginia’s early colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood.
Their marriage had taken place between 1770 and 1771.

Old Corotoman, the ancestral seat of the Carters on the Rappahan-
nock River, was their home. As far back as the year 1650, when the first
settlement of Lancaster County was made, Charles Carter’s great-great-
grandfather, Colonel John Carter, built Corotoman. He came from
Hertfordshire, England, settled in Virginia in the sixteen-forties and
was a member of the Assembly from Norfolk County at the time the
first Richard Lee was prominent in affairs of the Colony. After John
Carter secured a grant to several thousand acres in the region of the
Rappahannock and Corotoman Rivers, he moved to Lancaster County
and built his great house called after the Corotoman, a tributary of the
Rappahannock. He represented Lancaster in the House of Burgesses.
According to G. W. Beale:

Colonel Carter was a loyal churchman, and interested in the spiritual welfare
of his neighbors, and he showed his interest by erecting at his personal expense,
the first church building established between the Rappahannock and the Po-
tomac. This building was completed about the year 1670, and called Christ’s
church. It became before its completion a monument and tomb for its benevo-
lent donor, who, having died on June 10, 1669 was interred within its walls "to
the east of the chancel.” Colonel Carter was married three times. . . .

His oldest son, Robert, surnamed "King,” was for several years the sole
male representative of the family [says Mr. Beale], and about 1680 entered
into the occupancy of the Corotoman home. He had, it seems, before reach-
ing his majority, sought a wife beyond the Rappahannock, and his quest had
been rewarded in securing Judith, the eldest daughter of John Armistead, Esq.,

description by Carter Lee of the girlhood home of his mother. Ann Hill Carter.

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH

269

of Hesse, in Gloucester, whom he married in 1678 Robert Carter

. . . was conspicuously active with business affairs and public responsibilities.
He was one of the early solicitors of funds for the erection of William and
Mary College, a leading vestryman of Christ’s church, a member of the House
of Burgesses, and for six years its Speaker, acting Governor of the Colony, in
1727, and for nearly or quite a quarter of a century, a member of the King’s
Council for Virginia. In 1703 he accepted the responsible and delicate position
of attorney and agent for Thomas Culpeper, Lord Proprietor of the Northern
Neck. . . .

In 1711 Robert Carter, supreme in colonial affairs, was succeeded in
this office by Thomas Lee, young enough to be his grandson. As a result
there were strained relations between Carters and Lees for a long period.

King Carter’s landed estates embraced more than 300,000 acres in
various parts of the Colony. He had over a thousand slaves. "The ampli-
tude of his possessions,” says Beale, "and the opulence in which he was
able to live, gained for him among his contemporaries the soubriquet of
'King,’ his claim to which, it would seem, successive generations have
seemed content to allow.”

Robert Carter died on August 4, 1732, leaving fifteen children from
his two marriages. "The sons were liberally trained at William and
Mary College, or in England, and the daughters had every advantage
the educational facilities of the colony afforded. The older son, John,
became Secretary of the Colony, and held this office so long that the
name 'Secretary’ became permanently attached to him. He married
Elisabeth Hill, daughter of Sir Edward Hill of Shirley on the James.”3

Following the death of the heir-at-law, Corotoman passed into the
possession of Charles Carter, son of Secretary (John) Carter and Elisa-
beth Hill. In 1750 Charles married his cousin, Mary Carter of Cleve.
Twenty years later, January 30, 1770, her death occurred. Not long
afterwards Carter married Ann Butler Moore. Their daughter Ann Hill
was born at Corotoman in the year 1773. In her mingled the strains of
those families so distinguished in the colonial history of Virginia: Car-
ter, Hill, Moore, and Spotswood.

Some years before Charles Carter’s second marriage, his mother Elisa-
beth Hill Carter, widow of Secretary John Carter, had married Bowler
Cocke and returned to live at her girlhood home, Shirley on the James,
to which she had fallen heir. In June, 1771, she died. Two months later
her husband, Bowler Cocke, also died.

3An early connection with the Lees was established when Secretary Carter’s youngest sister,
Lucy, married Henry Fitzhugh of Eagle’s Nest, the son of William Fitzhugh and his wife, Ann,
only sister of Thomas Lee of Stratford.

270 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

By John Carter’s will, his son Charles inherited Shirley. But the heirs
of Bowler Cocke disputed his right to possession. The plantation was
not awarded Carter until December, 1772, after a complicated law suit.
Charles Carter was called "Charles Carter of Corotoman and of Shir-
ley.” He represented the county of Lancaster in the House of Burgesses
and also continued to preside regularly as justice of the peace in that
county from 1772 to October, 1775. The Lancaster records show that he
continued to reside at Corotoman. According to the unpublished diaries
of his cousin, Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, and also from other docu-
mentary sources, Charles Carter was living at Corotoman until he moved
to Shirley in 1776. His daughter, Ann Hill, was then three years old.4

Shirley, on the north bank of the James River, in Charles City County,
was about thirty miles from Richmond. The plantation, comprising
several thousand acres, was just above the point where the Appomattox
River flows into the James. Of level or gently undulating character, the
land lay wide open to the sun. The original Hill mansion was built
close beside the river in this pleasant and fruitful wilderness six years
after Jamestown was founded. The original house, which disappeared
generations ago, stood very near the "new dwelling house” which Carter
Lee mentions, and was probably built by Charles Carter during the last
quarter of the eighteenth century.

Shirley was originally the property of Thomas West, Lord Delaware,
and his three brothers. Lyon Gardiner Tyler says the house was first oc-
cupied in 1613, when Sir Thomas Dale established Bermuda Hundred.

It was called originally West-and-Sherley-Hundred. . . . [In 1602] Thomas
West, Lord Delaware, [had] married Cecilly, daughter of Sir Thomas Sherley
. . . [of Whiston England], In 1664, 2,544 acres at Shirley Hundred were
patented by Major Edward Hill, Sr., a man of great prominence in the colony.
The land was inherited by his son Colonel Edward Hill, Jr., who left a son,
Colonel Edward Hill, and two daughters, Hannah . . . and Elisabeth, who
married John Carter, secretary of state. . . . Colonel Edward Hill, third of
the name, died in 1720 without children, and Shirley descended to his sister
Elisabeth Carter, and has since remained in the Carter family.5

The young English woman of high degree, the Lady Cecilly from
whom Shirley derived its name, may have lived there in the perilous
years following the settlement at Jamestown. It is quite possible that
she did. Shirley’s next owners, Sir Edward Hill, his son Edward, and
his grandson, also named Edward Hill, took a leading part in the gov-

4See Supplementary Records for documentary material proving that Corotoman was the resi-
dence of Charles Carter from 1771 to 1776 and the birthplace of Ann Hill Carter.

6 77m Cradle of the Republic, by Lyon Gardiner Tyler. Richmond, 1906, Hermitage Press.

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 271

ernment of the Colony, each in his generation, precisely as the Lees
and the Carters did. They, too, were closely associated with those other
Old Standers of James City and Williamsburg, the six progenitors of the
Stratford Lees: Ludwell, Lee, Corbin, Harrison, Bland, and Jenings.

"Four-square to the world and three stories high,” as Swepson Earle
says in The Chesapeake Bay Country, Shirley "stands in the midst of a
lawn shaded by giant oaks. Rows of many-paned dormer windows look
out from all four sides of its sloping roof, and huge chimneys tower
above them. To the rear of the mansion are substantial brick outbuild-
ings. At one side lies the flower garden with its box hedges, old-fash-
ioned roses and beds of sweet lavender and mignonette, while the front
commands a beautiful view of the river.”

A large wooden pineapple, symbol of welcome, crowns the apex of
the roof. Two spacious dependencies, formerly in line with the main
building, have disappeared, although two other original outbuildings
remain. The "new dwelling house” of the late eighteenth century has
beauty and dignity within and without. The rooms are richly panelled
and have lofty, spacious proportions with open fireplaces and long,
deep-seated windows. A "flying staircase” rises from the entrance hall
to the second floor.

Like King Carter, his grandfather, Charles Carter of Corotoman and
Shirley, also had a family of patriarchal size — twenty-one children by
his two marriages. He appears to have been exceptionally devoted to
Nancy, the daughter of his old age. So was she to him. Judging from
letters recently coming to light, her early life was exceedingly happy and
harmonious.

As if there were not brothers and sisters enough to serve as playmates
and companions for his youngest daughter, Charles Carter invited his
great-nieces, Betsy and Maria Farley of Nesting, to visit Shirley so fre-
quently that it became their second home. These "adopted daughters”
of Shirley were about Nancy’s age. Betsy (Elizabeth Carter Byrd Far-
ley) was a year older, Maria Byrd a year younger. Their mother, Elisa-
beth Hill Byrd of Westover, was the daughter of Charles Carter’s only
sister, Elisabeth, who married the third William Byrd of Westover on
the James. This marriage united the houses of Shirley and Westover
in a permanent bond of historic association and family relationship.

When, in the year 1771, Elisabeth Hill Byrd of Westover married
John Parke Farley of Virginia and Antigua, they established their
home on a near-by plantation called Nesting. Their two daughters,

272 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Betsy and Maria Farley, grew up there. Thus a third family household
became closely knit to Westover and Shirley.

The three cousins, Nancy, Betsy and Maria, probably shared the same
governesses and dancing and music masters. Nancy, who was gifted in
music, sang, and, Tom Shippen says, played the harpsichord "very agree-
ably.” Surviving letters indicate that each of the three girls received the
same painstaking instruction in English grammar, rhetoric, spelling, and
punctuation as in their penmanship. This was not true of the letters of
most Virginia girls of the day. As they grew into their teens in the de-
lightful environment of their three James River homes, each one of the
merry cousins was a belle, "a beauty & fortune.”

Betsy Farley was the first to break the single blessedness of the trio.
She married John Bannister, Jr., about 1788. He died soon after. So in
a very short time Betsy, as a beautiful young widow, was again sharing
with Maria and Nancy the social gaieties of the James River houses and
the attentions of the beaux of Tidewater.

About this time Betsy Farley and Tom Shippen of Philadelphia met
one another. Tom, a Lee of Stratford on his mother’s side, was an im-
pressionable youth. He fell head over heels in love with Betsy, and
in love too, afresh with Shirley, one of the several country seats on
James River he had long known and to which he had always been
attached. Ever since his kinswoman of Philadelphia, Mary Willing,
had married the third William Byrd of Westover after the death of his
first wife, Elisabeth Hill Carter of Shirley, both Thomas Lee Shippen
and his father, Dr. William Shippen, Jr., had been occasional guests at
Westover and at other plantations close by. So endeared to him were
these old Virginia homes that even in his exciting and adventurous years
abroad when "taking the grand tour,” Tom never failed to cherish them.
In a letter to his father, written from London in the late 1780’s, Tom
said: "When you write say to the houses of Westover, Shirley, Hundred
& Meade, how do ye in my name. I very often think of the days I
passed with them — they were halcyon — They are still more so in retro-
spect.”6

Through Tom Shippen’s notes about Nancy Carter and through a
letter of Maria Farley’s son-in-law, Samuel Appleton Storrow of Boston,
many events of Ann Hill Carter’s youth and marriage not heretofore
known are made clear. Thus, curiously, not from Virginia, her home,

'Shippen Papers.

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 273

but from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts has this interesting informa-
tion come.

On November 27, 1790, Tom Shippen said in a letter from Philadel-
phia to his adored Betsy at Shirley: . . I am a cousin too, and an

affectionate one to Nancy Carter, and love her independently of your
attachment to her, or hers to you. ...”

January 1, 1791, he says again to Betsy: " . . .1 hope you have passed
a merry Christmas — divided perhaps between Nesting, Westover and
Shirley as to the scene, as to its occupations between Duty, Charity and
Mirth.”7

What a vivid characterization of those three Virginia homes! And
how the word "Mirth” pictures Shirley and explains why all the young
people loved it so and always loved visiting there!

Betsy Farley’s wedding to Tom Shippen took place in March, 1791, at
the Farley plantation, Nesting — "Duty,” as named by Tom. His uncle
Arthur Lee of Stratford, now of Lansdowne-on-the-Rappahannock, was
with Tom at Nesting for the days of festivity preceding the wed-
ding. On March 3, 1791, Tom wrote his father from Nesting: ". . .
We dined yesterday at Shirley and were very kindly treated by Mr.
Carter and his family. Col Harrison & Col Walker were of the party.
You were enquired after with great solicitude as you have been at every
house in the neighborhood — all lamenting the disappointment as a great
loss which they all have sustained. . . .”8

Late in the following autumn the young husband was again in Vir-
ginia and wrote almost daily to his Betsy, at their country home in
Pennsylvania:

"Nesting Nov 9, 1791

"Nov 10th Good morning to my darling. The weather is so bad that
we cannot go to Shirley today as we had promised. . . . We had a very
agreeable day here yesterday. The company were all in fine spirits, and
we were merry and wise. Nancy Carter was handsomer than I ever saw
her, your Aunt Walker more kind an affectionate. . . . End of the same
day. . . . The weather cleared up and we went to Shirley where we
found besides those we had expected, Mr. John Page, Miss S. Harrison,
and Miss Lyons. Nancy played several pieces of musick for me very
agreeably upon her new harpsichord and talked incessantly of you. . . .
The girls are going with the young ladies of Shirley and Barclay to
Richmond on Monday to see some plays, and they are all delighted be-

7Shippen Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
*ldem.

274 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

yond measure at the thought. We have been plaguing Nancy Carter this
day or two with a letter supposed to have been addressed to her by
Frank Walker but which in fact is the production of W Kinloch’s merry
pen. . . . ”9

Again he wrote: ". . .We had a large party yesterday at Shirley.. .

Another day: ". . .1 shall take your letter today to Shirley for the
amusement of your friend Nancy Carter who I believe loves you like a
sister. You see how proud I am of your letters and I beg you to excuse
my vanity in sharing them. ...”

On October 28, 1791, Tom dutifully delivered to Betsy the family
gossip that is the breath of life to a Virginia girl: ”... Has the report
reached you of our sister Maria’s conquest? It is confidently reported
that the Lord of Mount Airy is supplicating her for mercy — True it is
that he has broken off with Miss Lewis and that he has assigne[d] his
passion for Maria as the cause of his infidelity. Time will discover all
things — I think Maria is not violently angry with the supposition — He
is expected at Nesting from the Annapolis races next week where he
has been all triumphant & victorious.”

Then in November, 1791, came a brief item around which, un-
known to them all, revolved the future destiny of their beloved Nancy
Carter: ” . . .You will have heard of the appointment of Col0 H Lee to
the government of Virginia. He was chosen last Wednesday by a great
majority. . .

Of Nancy Carter or of Harry Lee, Tom Shippen said nothing more.
But strange to relate, thirty years later, Colonel Storrow in a letter to his
sister took up the story where Tom left off. The stage of his record was set
in what was probably the early spring of 1793, two years after Tom’s rec-
ord. Massachusetts man though Storrow was, he indulged in a "Prel-
ude” of comparisons about the characteristics of the ladies of his wife’s
native heath. He says in this letter: ”... Very fine women (you may
doubt me) are rather rare here. Female talent has generally received a
wrong direction. I have seen many a worn out Coquette, many a heart-
less Belle that wanted but the first impulse to be made useful and happy.
I have heard of many instances of rare capacities — but waste followed
possession as tho’ it were irresistable. In fact it may have been so — So-
ciety (that of Virginia, I mean) was full of splendid meteors: if a
woman had been inclined to pursue a right path there was no steady
light whereby she could discern it. ...”

1>Vol. I, Shippen Letters, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 275

But Nancy Carter, Storrow goes on to say, "need not have been [born]
in Virginia to have been pronounced excellent — there is no circle —
none on earth — in which she would not be an ornament. She com-
menced life a spoiled child — a beauty & fortune. . . .’’Of Maria
Farley ( his wife’s mother) , he says that she too "was a beauty & fortune
in her day”; that Nancy Carter and she "were pretty much brought up
together,” Nancy being the elder by a year.

He then tells the amazing story that "General Lee, at that time at the
head of everything in Virginia, was in love (honestly, they say) . . .”
with Maria Farley. "He was handsome, of splendid talents, & Governor
of the State.” Maria Farley was living at Shirley during the General’s
suit for her hand. To quote Storrow further: "As desperately as Gen-
eral Lee was in love with Miss Farley was Miss Carter with General
Lee, and at the same time compelled to witness his devotion to another
object. His repeated visits to Miss Farley & utter neglect of her preyed
upon her health, but drew nothing from her of unkindness to her fortu-
nate Cousin, & her only interference, & that against herself, was when
General Lee had made his offer & Miss Farley avowed that she should
reject it — She then said 'O stop, stop, Maria — You do not know what
you are throwing away.’ Maria however, persisted in throwing it away,
& then in the face of decency & delicacy he [Governor Lee] made an
offer to her [Nancy Carter] which she could not resist. . . .”10

To the romantic young people at Shirley the visits of His Excellency,
the Governor, to Maria Farley and later to their own Nancy Carter,
must have been a source of exhilarating interest and curiosity. Governor
Lee usually came to Shirley on horseback. His saddle mounts were
stout and swift. He rode like the wind. And what a superb horseman
he was!

Like most Virginia girls, as much at home in the paddock as in the
drawing-room, Nancy Carter was undoubtedly impressed by "Mr. Lee’s”
expert horsemanship. She loved the country, the good times, the dances,
music, hunts, company, yet she appears curiously to have been always
somewhat less sophisticated than Betsy and Maria Farley. Beneath the
surface she took life seriously. She was single-minded, direct, pro-
foundly sincere, and a hero worshipper.

But "Mr. Lee,” as she invariably addressed him, or "My dearest Mr.

‘"Original letter dated September 1, 1821, Samuel Appleton Storrow to his sister in Boston,
presented to the author for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc., November, 1933, by
Miss Anne Carter Greene. See Supplementary Records for letter in full.

276 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Lee,” as she said, years after they were married, was, apparently, the
one man of her entire life whom she loved and honored, to whom she
"looked up” with all the fervor of her honest and unworldly-wise soul.

In Storrow’s letter he refers to Lee’s turning immediately to Nancy
Carter after being discarded by Maria, and making her an offer "in the
face of decency & delicacy.” Storrow wrote of this event nearly thirty
years after it happened. Intervening circumstances and details are not
known. Lee had been infatuated with Maria Farley; he was not in love
with Nancy Carter — not at first.

Ann was seventeen years younger than her "Mr. Lee.” She had a
brunette beauty, with olive skin, dark hair and eyes. "She was intense,
loving and sweet. Although she was always gentle, she was firm, very
resolute and strong.”11

During 1792 and 1793 Harry Lee was turning over in his mind the
idea of going to revolutionary France. He was in correspondence with
Lafayette and hoped to secure a high military appointment in the French
Army. Through a source he does not mention, in a letter to Washington,
April 29, 1793, he was assured that a Major General’s commission
would be given him as soon as he arrived in Paris. Such service would
be what he most desired and could do best. Furthermore, it would take
him far away from Stratford and from sorrow. He could enter upon a
new life, new scenes, be with new people, and become part of a great
social upheaval with the philosophy of which he was deeply sympathetic.

Lee conferred with Washington, as he always did upon momentous
questions:

Bred to arms, I have always since my domestic calamity wished for a return
to my profession as the best resort for my mind in its affliction. . . . I am con-
sequently solicitous for the best advice and this I am persuaded you can give.
Should it be improper on your part, much as I want it, I must relinquish the
hope. But as your opinion to me will never be known but to myself and as I
ask your counsel in your private character, I feel a presumption in favor of my
wishes.

If fair war on terms of honor, with certainty of sustenance to the troops, and
certainty of concert among the citizens will & can be supported by France, I
will embark. If the reverse in any part is probable, to go would be the com-
pletion of my lot of misery. You see my situation; you have experienced my
secrecy in my younger days and you know the inviolable affection I bear toward
you. Apprehend no improper effects of your free opinion to me.

Washington discouraged the idea, and, speaking from his own point
of view, wrote him:

“Statement to writer by Mrs. Francis.

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH

277

... if the case which you have suggested were mine I should ponder well
before I resolved, not only for private considerations but on public grounds.
The latter because, being the first magistrate of a respectable State, much
speculation would be excited by such a measure. . . . the affairs of (France)
would seem to me to be in the highest paroxysm of disorder; not so much from
the pressure of foreign enemies, for in the cause of liberty this ought to be
fuel to the fire of a patriot soldier, and to increase his ardor, but because those
in whose hands the government is entrusted are ready to tear each other to
pieces & will more than probably prove the worst foes the country has. . . .

To this letter Lee replied on May 15, 1793:

My dear friend. I have to thank you from my heart for your late letter — It
has had I hope a happy effect for I feel myself yeilding to its weight of reason
and begin to think that the pursuit of my plan would in the present condition
of things be madness.

I shall part with my design (for the execution of which I have prepared
myself) with extreme reluctance & I hope for a change in the fortune of
affairs which may be propitious to my wishes.

In any event I shall bear in remembrance your goodness & pray for your
constant felicity & prosperity.

Charles Carter had not approved of Lee’s prospective plans. Mr. Lee
must give up this mad idea of going to France in such a cause or else
give up his daughter. Lee gave up the idea. Then Carter wrote him:

The only objection we ever had to your connection with our beloved daughter
is now entirely done away. You have declared upon your honor that you have
relinquished all thoughts of going to France, and we rest satisfied with that
assurance. As we certainly know that you have obtained her consent, you shall
have that of her parents most cordially, to be joined together in the holy bonds
of matrimony, whenever she pleases; and as it is determined on, by the appro-
bation and sincere affection of all friends, as well as of the parties immediately
concerned, we think the sooner it takes place the better.

The date for the wedding was placed in June. When General Wash-
ington learned of the approaching event, he wrote Lee:

... As we are told that you have exchanged the rugged and dangerous
field of Mars for the soft and pleasurable bed of Venus, I do in this, as I shall
in every thing you may pursue like unto it, good and laudable, wish you all
imaginable success and happiness.

At this time, according to a family tradition, Washington sent the
bride a locket containing his miniature, inscribed, "from Washington
to his dear Ann.”

The Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser, of Richmond, an-
nounced on June 26, 1793:

On Tuesday evening, the 18th inst. was married at Shirley, Governor Lee,
to the amiable and accomplished Miss Ann Carter, daughter of Charles Carter,
Esq. — An event which promises the most auspicious fortune to the wedded

278 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

pair, and which must give the highest satisfaction to their numerous and re-
spectable relatives.

Was the present hour fixed to peace, not a voice would be heard interruptive
of the happy repose which Virginia’s favorite young Souldier has assumed; but
should cruel fate in the present crisis otherwise command, a different destiny
awaits, and must awake him.

An acute sense of gratitude for favors given him was always a pre-
dominating quality of Harry Lee’s character. It would be unlike him not
to be touched by Ann Carter’s love for him and to be grateful for it.
This is evident from the reference he made years afterward when he
wrote to Carter Lee that the June 18, 1793, that was his wedding day, was
"marked only by the union of two humble lovers.”

No description of Ann Lee’s regime as Virginia’s First Lady is avail-
able. Inevitably she would carry to the Governor’s Mansion the same
simplicity and lack of ostentation that prevailed at Shirley, the same
note of hospitality and of social gaiety to which she had always been
accustomed. By comparison with the great house of Shirley Plantation,
the Governor’s Mansion in the small town of Richmond was imposing
only in name. It was a flimsy frame structure, two stories high, whose
rooms, not half the size of those at Shirley, were plastered and not
paneled. A high stone wall separated the rough, uncultivated grounds
around the mansion from the Capitol.

The neighbors, however, were old friends of the Lees and Carters for
generations, and they probably welcomed the bride from Shirley with
open arms. Among them were the Edward Carringtons and the John
Marshalls.

There were, of course, trying adjustments for Ann to make since she
had to undertake immediately the responsibility of a ready-made family.
Lucy Grymes and little Henry Lee were difficult children. Because of
the chronically frail condition of their mother and their father’s preoc-
cupation with political and business affairs, these two younger children
seem to have been almost entirely in the care of the servants. When
Governor Lee was away from his Richmond home, they had frequently
stayed at Sully with their father’s brother, Richard Bland Lee, and his
wife. When their father married Ann Carter, Lucy Grymes was about
eight years old and Henry was six. Both were high-strung, quick-
tempered, emotional children, impulsive and self-willed. It appears
that their new mother quickly won Henry’s affection, but with Lucy
Grymes the relationship seems always to have been more or less strained.

Circumstances gradually parted Ann Lee from the Farley girls with

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 279

whom she had grown up. The charming Maria, toast of the James
River region, had thrown away "the suit of the Lord of Mount Airy,”
scion of the Tayloe family, as she had that of his Excellency, Governor
Lee, and doubtless of many another. She married one of her Carter
cousins, William Champe Carter, nephew of Ann’s father. Her new
home was the Carter country seat, Blenheim, in Albemarle County, too
far removed from Richmond for her to see Ann often. Several years
later when the Lees moved to Stratford, the distance prohibited visits
altogether. Yet Maria brought up her children to love Nancy Carter.
Maria’s daughter was given the family name so honored for three gene-
rations, Elisabeth Hill Carter. In 1820 she married Samuel Appleton
Storrow of Massachusetts, later Judge Advocate General of the United
States Army. It was he who wrote of Governor Lee’s courtship of Maria
Farley.

Elizabeth, or Betsy Farley, as Mrs. Thomas Lee Shippen, made her
home in the country outside of Philadelphia. After her husband’s death,
she married George Izzard of South Carolina and went to live in
Charleston. Many years later she came back to visit Ann Lee in Alex-
andria, as she wrote her son William Shippen, and their old friendship
was renewed.

A close and gratifying connection developed at this time between
Ann Lee and her husband’s brothers and their wives, particularly with
the family at Sully, Richard Bland Lee and his wife, Elizabeth Collins,
and the Charles Lees of Alexandria. Their friendship was to mean a
great deal to Ann then and in the immediate years ahead.

During his term as Virginia’s chief magistrate, Harry Lee concen-
trated upon affairs of government with his characteristic vigor. Like
Thomas Lee, he never lost his concern for the protection of the frontiers;
and, arbitrarily perhaps, strengthened the militia patrols on the border,
after St. Clair’s defeat. Had he waited for due authorization from the
Federal government, many lives would undoubtedly have been lost
and Virginia’s border settlements imperilled and permanently retarded.
When the bill of $20,000 for militia and fortification expenses was pre-
sented to the Federal Treasury, Secretary of War Knox objected to the
payment. James Madison and Richard Henry Lee, upholding the neces-
sity for Governor Lee’s course, fought the case in Congress, and eventu-
ally the bills were paid. In recognition of their Governor’s protection,
Virginians gave the name of Lee to the western county formed in the
Cumberland Mountain region.

280 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Among other events of Harry Lee’s administration was his stand in
behalf of the nation’s neutrality policy when he took measures to prevent
the fitting out and sailing of privateers from Virginia ports. His support
of Washington’s refusal to aid France in revolution, in the face of
Genet’s visit to the United States, was a source of surprise to many who
had known of Lee’s previous attitude. He also sponsored the relief of
French emigres who settled in Russell County.

In 1793 he espoused the eleventh amendment to the Constitution.
His position in this matter was interesting and important. It was in con-
nection with the suit brought by the Indiana Company against the Com-
monwealth of Virginia. This suit involved the constitutional right of
a citizen or citizens of the United States to sue one or more of the sov-
ereign states of the Union, as well as to determine the extent of the
judicial power of the United States under the Constitution. The suit
of Chisholm versus Georgia was already pending, the decision in that
case being handed down by the Supreme Court on February 18, 1793.
In Lee’s letter to Lieutenant Governor Wood, dated February 7, 1793,
Lee stands foursquare for the principle which finally triumphed in the
form of the eleventh amendment. In another letter of March 3, 1793, Lee
again points out the necessity for a constitutional amendment, "explana-
tory of the right of the Federal Judiciary.” Thus he was one of the early
and ardent advocates of the eleventh amendment.12

In the following year came another test of the Constitution — an un-
toward event threatening civil war. For a long time discontent had
been brewing among the farmers and mountaineers in the western
counties of Pennsylvania and the adjacent sections of Virginia, Mary-
land, and even North Carolina. The root of the trouble lay specifically
in what they considered an unjust and unreasonable tax levied by the
Federal government on the one product from which they could earn a
livelihood — whiskey made from wheat, their only saleable crop. This
discontent, fanned by desperate living conditions, flamed at length into
organized rebellion against the government. Modern enlightened treat-
ment would have called for an investigation of the source of the trouble,
amelioration of the tax, and a launching, perhaps, of some diversity
of industries and new ways and means of livelihood for the poverty-
stricken settlers and their hard-driven families. But there appeared to
Washington and his Cabinet only one effective course — to crush the re-
bellion by force of arms. An army of 15,000 soldiers was mustered in

“Calendar of Virginia State Papers, VI, 28 7 and 304. Tyler, 435 ff.

CHIEF MAGISTRATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 281

infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiments — to move in mass against the
insurgents. Washington appointed Governor Lee Major General in
charge of the expedition.

In a letter to Lee, the President said :

No citizens of the United States can ever be engaged in a service more im-
portant to their country. It is nothing less than to consolidate and to preserve
the blessings of that revolution, which, at much expense of blood and treasure,
constituted us a free and independent nation. It is to give to the world an
illustrious example of the utmost consequence to the cause of mankind. I
experienced a heart-felt satisfaction in the conviction that the conduct of the
troops will be in every respect answerable to the goodness of the cause and the
magnitude of the stake.13

At this crucial moment, when it seemed that the union itself might
be imperilled, Lee’s allegiance to state rights appears to have wavered.
Throughout his administration he had been ardently advocating state
rights whenever they were violated by what he thought was a wrong
interpretation of the Constitution, but when it came to a test, he aligned
himself heart and soul with the Federal government. He defended the
Constitution and the Union and followed to the letter instructions from
his commander in chief, the President of the United States.

To Harry Lee’s credit not a man was killed on either side. Not one
of his 15,000 troopers fired a shot against the frontiersmen in the blood-
less campaign. The first attempt to defy the Constitution was halted.
The rebellion was quieted by the mere appearance of the formidable
army and by the restraint and discipline of Major General Lee.

When Lee returned to Richmond, he found that Virginians did not
approve of his course. Was he, after all, becoming a Federalist again in-
stead of a state rights man? This question may have gone the rounds of
the counties. In any event, Lee was no longer Virginia’s "Man of the
Hour.”

Of more concern to him than either the condemnation or applause of
his state, was the situation in his family. Both Ann and little Henry
had been ill when he left them to command the western expedition.
During the months of his absence, even though they were tenderly cared
for at Shirley, they were still far from well. Again he had been forced
to endure the same anguish of dread and apprehension he had so often
suffered before.

With the coming of the spring, Ann’s first child, a son, was born at
Shirley on April 2, 1795. He was given the name of Algernon Sidney,

13The Lees of Virginia, by Burton J. Hendrick, p. 374, 375.

282 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

a traditional ancestor of the Virginia Lees. The character and career
of the soldier-statesman of seventeenth century England, that brave,
resolute younger son of the Earl of Leicester, must have been held in
peculiar veneration by Harry Lee and perhaps also by Ann. No refer-
ence to Sidney has been found in their letters or papers, yet he exercised
an influence upon Lee so direct and definite that Lee named two of his
sons for the famous Captain of Horse. At the head of his regiment Sid-
ney had led the gallant charge at Marston Moor. He had pursued ad-
venture, loved the classics, resisted tyranny always, and died a martyr
because of his beliefs. All this undoubtedly made a deep impression
upon Harry Lee. There are strangely analogous points in the lives of the
two men a century apart.

Some time between 1795 and 1796 (the date is not recorded) Lee
moved his family from Richmond to Stratford. Apparently this move
was deferred as long as possible. For Harry Lee, the return to Stratford
and its poignant associations with the past must have been a severe trial.
But Stratford was his home and the home of Matilda’s children. The
devoted Ann would not mind its solitude so long as he was with her.

They had been there only perhaps a few months when, on August 9,
1796, the baby died. "His mother preserved among her jewels, as more
precious than them all, a rich curl of his golden hair.”14

Carter

uLife of General Henry Lee, by R. E. Lee.

CHAPTER XIV: THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

yO record of the family life at Stratford is available for more
than a year after the death of Algernon Sidney Lee. In a brief
letter to Mrs. Richard Bland Lee, on May 15, 1797, Ann men-
tions having taken "a very fatiguing ride on horseback,” and in closing,
expresses her "affectionate and unalterable attachment” to both Mrs.
Lee and her husband.

Apparently Colonel Harry did not return to the farming of the
plantation with any degree of interest or success. Instead, he began to
partition it further by selling certain tracts and portions of the original
acreage not included in the deed of trust of 1790. The Chantilly tract,
the home of his distinguished kinsman, Richard Henry Lee, was among
these. After Richard Henry’s death in 1794, his house had been dis-
mantled and razed to the ground.

The Chantilly property was sold by Harry and Ann Lee, June 14,
1797. The deed, recorded in the Westmoreland Court Papers Septem-
ber 22, 1797, is as follows:

Deed between Henry Lee and Ann his wife of County of Westmoreland of
the one part and Josiah Watson of the Town of Alexandria County of Fairfax
of the other part — -

Whereas the Honourable Phil. Ludwell Lee, late of said County of West-
moreland, dec’d was in his lifetime and at the time of his death siezed of a
Large Estate and being so siezed departed this life intestate whereby the whole
of his real estate descended unto his son and Heir-at-law Philip L. Lee who
sometime after departed this life under the age of 21 yrs. by whose death the
sd. Estate descended unto his Sisters Matilda who afterwards intermarried with
Henry Lee and Flora who intermarried with Ludwell Lee and whereas the sd.
Henry Lee and Matilda his wife and Ludwell Lee and Flora his wife did after-
wards by an Indenture bearing date made partition and Division between

them of the Real Estate which descended unto the said Matilda & Flora by the
Death of their Brother &c — in which Partition among other parts of Land
allotted unto sd. Ludwell & Flora was a tract of Land called "Chantilly” sup-
posed to contain 500 Acres which said Land sd. Ludwell & Flora deeded for
considerations therein named to sd. Henry Lee — Now this Indenture that sd.
Henry Lee and Ann his wife doth sell unto Josiah Watson sd. tract called
"Chantilly” &c.

The Chantilly library, according to G. W. Beale, was moved to Strat-
ford and Alexandria. It included a large collection of law books and
historical works, valuable state and county papers, legal documents and
original letters from officers of the Continental Army and statesmen of
the Revolutionary period in England, France and the colonies, as well

[283]

The fruits and shades of Stratford.

THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

285

as much of the correspondence of the live Lee brothers of Stratford.
Many of these important documents and books passed into the posses-
sion of Richard Henry’s son, Ludwell Lee, and were placed in the li-
brary of his house, Shuter’s Hill, Alexandria.1 They formed the basis
for the first biographies of Richard Henry and Arthur Lee, written a
generation later by the son of Ludwell and Flora Lee, also named Rich-
ard Henry.

The rest of the Chantilly collection taken to Stratford was added by
Harry Lee to his own historic letters, documents, and books, and those
of President Lee and Philip Ludwell Lee. In later years these were to
serve him in the compilation of his Memoirs and to contribute much
source-information eventually used by his son Henry in certain of his
books and Virginia sketches. Carter Lee refers to this collection which
in his youth made Stratford Hall a shrine to Clio.2

On the eighth of November, 1798, Ann Lee gave birth to her second
child, another son, whom she named Charles Carter for her dearly be-
loved father.

A pleasant picture is given a year later of the life of the family at
Stratford. Ann’s joy in being completely alone with her husband and
their little son made up to her— at that time — for the monotony of her
isolated home. After Shirley, Stratford must have had the solitude of a
monastery. Nevertheless, Ann Lee’s contentment is voiced in this well-
known letter written February 18, 1799, to Mrs. Richard Bland Lee:

... I wish you would write frequently to me my dear Mrs Lee, and not
regard the ceremony of receiving regularly my answers: every communication
respecting your health and happiness, would at all times convey to me real
satisfaction. I know nothing passing in your part of the Country, so you will
have ample subject, in relating all the intelligence that your Neighbourhood
and its environs can afford. So confined is the sphere in which I have moved
for the last six months, that I am almost totally ignorant of every occurrence
beyond the distance of fifteen or twenty miles, and excepting the friends who
do, and always will retain their places in my memory, and in whose remem-
brance I hope I shall exist, I may with much truth be said to live "The World
forgetting, by the World forgot.”

I have dined once at Mr- Turners, and have spent a day and night at Mr-
Me. Carty’s, exclusive of these visits, I have not left home since August. How
dull to you who live in a constant succession of visiting and being visited, must
such a life appear? Yet I do not find it in the smallest degree tiresome: my
hours pass too nimbly away — When in company, if agreeable company, I greatly

1This collection was removed later by Ludwell Lee to his new home, Belmont, Loudoun
County, Virginia. A portion of it is now at Harvard College Library.

2Photostats of all original manuscripts of this Stratford collection are in the possession of
Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc., and the Yale University Library.

286

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

enjoy it: when alone my Husband and Child excepted, I am not sensible of
the want of society — In them I have enough to make me cheerful and happy:
Our scene will shortly be diversified by the marriage of Col°- Washington; his
Lady elect has the reputation of being a charming Woman, and I reflect with
pleasure on the improvement our Neighbourhood will receive from her
residence. . . . Cannot you visit us in April my dear Mrs- Lee, and prevail
with Mrs- Collins to accompany you? could you know how much happiness I
should receive from seeing her here, I am sure you would use your influence to
gratify me. We intend at present spending a part of the ensuing Summer at
the Sweet Springs: in May we begin our tour; and if I do not see you before
that time, I shall not till Autumn.

And I confess a glimpse of your Ladyship would not be entirely disagreeable,
but it must only be a glimpse, for you know how soon I become fatigued with
your company — Besides I fear Mrs- Collins will have left you, before I reach
Sully, and my disappointment would be greater than I can express, in not seeing
her before she quits Virginia. Mr- Lee left home the day John Arrived, and as
I expect his return on Wednesday, I think it best to detain John till then. His
object was to visit some of the leading characters in Lancaster and the adjoin-
ing Counties, to endeavour to obtain their interest in his election: so that I
imagine he cannot be absent longer than he calculated on. I must now beg
leave to introduce to your acquaintance my little Charles Carter, whom, from
the s^pe/iahve beauty of his Father and Mother, you will conceive to be pos-
sessed of a large portion, but alas! my dear, he inherits neither the charms of
the one, nor the other — He is a little black eye’s, brown Boy; very healthy,
good tempered, lively (and his Mother thinks) very sweet. — Kiss my dear
Richard a thousand times for me, and do not suffer him to forget the melodious
tune I used to delight him with. My dear Mrs- Lee must be tired of my prating,
I will relieve her, and conclude with offering my sincere love to Mrs- Collins
and Mr- Lee, best wishes to the young Ladies, and beging her always to remem-
ber how much she is beloved by her

A. Lee.

Mr- George Lee is absent — I have done myself the pleasure of procuring the
grafts Mr R. Lee wrote for. You will receive three kinds of Plums, they are
remarkably fine, particularly the red plum —

A. L.3

The McCartys mentioned in this letter lived at Pope’s Creek, the
plantation adjoining Stratford on its western area. They married into
the Lee family later and several of their large land holdings passed
into the hands of the Lees.

Colonel Harry became more and more engrossed in politics. Not-
withstanding the unpopularity of the Federalist Party in Virginia and
his own unequivocal support of Federal measures, he was elected again
to Congress in the spring of 1799, much to his and Ann’s gratification.

“Richard Bland Lee Papers, 1700-1825, Library of Congress.

THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

287

Washington, always his friend and supporter, was actively interested
in his campaign and rode to the polls in Montross to cast his vote for
Lee. The open support of the President of the United States helped
bring Lee the large majority vote as recorded in Virginia Westmoreland
County Records for 1799: Poll for representatives to Congress and

member to the State legislature for the County of Westmoreland taken
the 24th day of April 1799. Candidates for Congress H. Lee — W. Jones.
Votes: H. Lee — 233; W. Jones 47.”

The prospect of a winter in Philadelphia delighted Ann, and for her
stepdaughter, Lucy Grymes, it was equally a source of great expecta-
tions. After the visit to the Sweet Springs, the family journeyed north-
ward, reaching Philadelphia in time for the opening of the Sixth Con-
gress.

Philadelphia, during the last six or eight years of the eighteenth
century, was a far different city from what it was in earlier decades. It
was crowded with new people, new faces. More foreign legations were
established and many new members appointed to the old embassies.
With the coming of hundreds of refugees from Paris and from Port-au-
Prince, the sober Quaker and Presbyterian environment had yielded to
gay, bright foreign airs and graces.

Watson, an eye-witness of what he terms this "strange state of our
society,” writes in his Annals of Philadelphia:

About this time, almost every vessel arriving here brought fugitives from
the infuriated negroes in Port au Prince, or the sharp axe of the guillotine in
Paris, dripping night and day with the blood of Frenchmen, shed in the name
of liberty, equality, and the (sacred) rights of man. Our city thronged with
French people of all shades from the colonies and those from Old France,
giving it the appearance of one great hotel, or place of shelter for strangers
hastily collected together from a raging tempest.

. . . French boarding houses (pension Frangaise,) multiplied in every street.
The one at the south east corner of Race and Second streets, having some 40
windows, was filled with colonial French to the garret windows, whistling
and jumping about, fiddling and singing, as fancy seemed to suggest, like so
many crickets and grasshoppers. Groups of both sexes were to be seen seated
on chairs, in summer weather, forming semi-circles near the doors, so dis-
played as sometimes to render it necessary to step into the street to get along; —
their tongues, shoulders and hands in perpetual motion, jabbering away, "all

talkers and no hearers.” Instrumental music abounded in the citv

every where, by day as well as by night, from French gentleman (may be)
amateurs, on the hautboy, violin and clarionet, exquisitely played — and seem-
ingly intended to catch the attention of neighboring fair ones, at opposite
windows.

288 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

To many Philadelphians the French were like "play actors.” Their
presence actually gave an impetus to the local stage. Seldom had there
been tragedies and comedies in the Walnut Street theatre in such rapid
succession.

The Lee family took lodgings in Franklin Court, in the fashionable
section of the city below Washington Square and not far from the old
Congress Hall on Fourth Street. A few doors away from their apart-
ments were those of their old Richmond friend and neighbor, John
Marshall, now one of Lee’s colleagues in the Congress. Close by was
Shippen House, where a few years before, Colonel Harry and Matilda
had been so often entertained by their hospitable kinspeople. But now
the house was closed, and the family sadly broken up. Thomas Lee
Shippen, whom Ann knew so pleasantly in days gone by at Shirley,
Westover, and Nesting, was dying, and his wife, Ann’s old friend Betsy
Farley, was with him in South Carolina. Tom’s sister, Nancy, Mrs.
Henry Beekman Livingston, separated from her husband, was no longer
in society, and with her young daughter had moved away from Fourth
Street, few knew where.

Yet the Lees found in Philadelphia many of their old friends, rela-
tives and connections from Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina.
And with the opening of the Congress what a succession of dinners, teas,
parties, balls, lectures, concerts! By comparison with Richmond, at that
period so small, crude, and provincial a town, Philadelphia was to Ann’s
eye a great city. Ann Lee, being twenty-six and never before away from
Virginia, must have had the same zest and excitement that young Lucy
Grymes had.

Even the routine of shopping had a sense of adventure. The dry-
goods stores by the Delaware displayed bright colored dimities, muslins,
gauzes, slippers, shoes, bonnets, caps and hats of enormous size imported
from England. Such gorgeous display could never be seen in Richmond
or Williamsburg — or indeed in any city except in Philadelphia.

A few weeks after the Lees’ arrival, news of a public calamity reached
the city- — the death of General Washington. Lee was on his way to
Congress when he heard the report, but immediately returned to his
lodgings and wrote a set of resolutions to offer Congress.

According to the Annals of The Congress of the United States of
December 19, 1799, Marshall announced the death of General Wash-
ington to the House and at the same time offered the following resolu-
tions:

THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

289

That this House wait on the President of the United States in condolence of
this national calamity. That the Speaker’s chair be shrouded with black, and
that the members and officers of the House wear mourning, during the session.

That a joint committee of both Houses be appointed to report measures suit-
able to the occasion, and expressive of the profound sorrow with which Con-
gress is penetrated at the loss of a citizen, first in war, first in peace, and first in
the hearts of his countrymen.

That when this House adjourns, it will adjourn until Monday next.4

Marshall, Lee, and others were appointed on the committee, jointly
with the Senate delegates, "for the purpose expressed in the third reso-
lution.” This committee decided that a marble mausoleum to contain
the body of their illustrious chief should be erected in the new Federal
capital, the city of Washington.

On Monday, December 23, John Marshall reported this action of the
joint committees as to "what testimony of respect ought to be paid to
the memory of the man . . and he repeated Lee’s phrases soon to
become history, "the man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the
hearts of his countrymen.”

Speaking in behalf of the committee’s proposed plan, Lee said:

In executing the task assigned to the committee, it will be observed much
remains to be done; so far as they have gone, and as far as they may go, one
hope is to be cherished, that whatever is done, will be unanimously adopted.

This will be pleasing to our constituents and most honorable to the char-
acter we all honor. Out of a wish to execute in the best manner the direction
of the House, a difference of opinion will naturally prevail. This difference of
opinion however commendable, upon ascertaining the mode of public mourn-
ing, ought to be suspended when we come to act, for unanimity then is, as I
before stated, most to be wished for, whether the feelings of our constituents,
or our intentions, or the celebrity which all desire to give to the high occasion,
govern.

The action was then unanimously agreed upon and the first step taken
in the launching of the Washington Monument. On the following day,
which was Christmas Eve, the Annals record that the House was in-
formed that "The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives had requested Major General Henry Lee ... to
prepare and deliver a funeral oration . . . and that Mr. Lee had been
pleased to accept of the appointment.” In requesting Lee to give the
funeral oration as one of the representatives from the State of Virginia,
his close friendship with Washington was officially recognized and the

4That Harry Lee was author of these Resolutions is stated by John Marshall. It is also re-
ferred to in Notes on History of Washington Monument Taken From The Dedicatory Address
of Honorable W. W. Corcoran. First Vice-President of the Washington Monument Association,
Feb. 21, 1885, pp. 12-21.

290

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

devotion and unswerving loyalty he had given to Washington’s prin-
ciples and practices.

A reference to Philadelphia’s sentiment on that Christmas Day of
1799 is written by a Quaker girl, Elizabeth Drinker, in her journal:

Dec. 25. There is to be great doings tomorrow by way of respect to General
Washington’s memory; a funeral procession, an oration, or an eulogium to be
delivered by Henry Lee, a member of Congress from Virginia. The members
of Congress are to be in deep mourning; the citizens generally to wear crape
round their arms, for six months. Congress-hall is in mourning, and even the
Play-house; there has been and like to be, much said and done on the occa-
sion. I was sorry to hear of his death, and many others who make no show.
Those forms to be sure, are out of our way, but many will join in ye form
that cared little about him.

Elizabeth Drinker’s second entry, December 27th, is:

The funeral procession in honor of the late Commander-in-Chief of the
Armies of the United States, Lieut. Gen. George Washington, yesterday took
place. They assembled at the State-house — went from thence in grand proces-
sion to ye Dutch Church, called Zion church in Fourth street, where Major
Gen. Henry Lee delivered an oration to 4000 persons, or near that number,
who were, ’tis said, within the church. Ye concourse of people in the streets,
and at ye windows was very enormous. . . .

Standing before his colleagues of the two Houses of Congress and a
large concourse of Philadelphia’s citizens, assembled in the church,
Light-Horse Harry Lee began:

In obedience to your will, I rise, your humble organ, with the hope of execut-
ing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been pleased to
adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved
personage this country has ever produced. . . .

The founder of our federate republic — our bulwark in war, our guide in
peace, is no more! . . . His fame survives! bounded only by the limits of the
earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He survives in our heart — in the
growing knowledge of our children — in the affection of the good throughout
the world. And when our monuments shall be done away; when nations now
existing shall be no more; when even our young and far-spreading empire
shall have perished; still will our Washington’s glory unfaded shine, and die
not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sinks into chaos! . . .

Who is there that has forgotten the vales of Brandywine, the fields of Ger-
mantown, or the plains of Monmouth? Every where present, wants of every
kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a host, he
assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering re-
public. . . .

Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgment, calm-
ness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perserverance in
resolutions maturely formed; drawing information from all; acting from

THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

291

himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism; his own su-
periority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by
Heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have
distinguished the era of his life. ... To realize the vast hopes to which our
revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensable.
How novel, how grand the spectacle! Independent States stretched over an
immense territory, and known only by common difficulty, clinging to their
union as the rock of their safety; deciding, by frank comparison of their relative
condition, to rear on that rock, under the guidance of reason, a common gov-
ernment, through whose commanding protection, liberty and order, with their
long tram of blessings, should be safe to themselves, and the sure inheritance
of their posterity. . . .

Commencing his administration, what heart is not charmed with the recol-
lection of the pure and wise principles announced by himself, as the basis of
his political life? He best understood the indissoluble union between virtue
and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of
an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity
and individual felicity. Watching with an equal and comprehensive eye over
this great assemblage of communities and interests, he laid the foundations of
our national policy in the unerring, immutable principles of morality, based
on religion, exemplifying the pre-eminence of a free government by all the
attributes which win the affections of its citizens, or command the respect of
the world. . . .

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was
second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just,
humane, temperate and sincere; uniform, dignified and commanding, his ex-
ample was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example
lasting. . . .

Methinks I see his august image, and hear, falling from his venerable lips,
these deep sinking words:

"Cease, Sons of America, lamenting our separation. Go on, and confirm by
your wisdom the fruits of our joint councils, joint efforts, and common dangers.
Reverence religion; diffuse knowledge throughout your land; patronize the arts
and sciences; let liberty and order be inseparable companions; control party
spirit, the bane of free government; observe good faith to, and cultivate peace
with all nations.” . . .

On this same day, Friday, December 27, the journals of the Congress
record:

The House of Representatives of the United States, highly gratified with the
manner in which Mr. Lee has performed the service assigned to him under the
resolution desiring the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of
Representatives to request one of the members of Congress to prepare and
deliver a funeral oration on the death of George Washington ; and desirous
of communicating to their fellow-citizens, through the medium of the press,
those sentiments of respect for the character, of the gratitude for the services,

292

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

and of grief for the death of that illustrious personage, which, felt by all, have
on this melancholy occasion, been so well expressed:

Resolved, That the Speaker present the thanks of the House to Mr. Lee,
for the oration delivered by him to both Houses of Congress on Thursday, the
twenty-sixth instant; and request that he will permit a copy thereof to be taken
for publication.

In sending these resolutions to Lee, Theodore Sedgwick wrote:

Philadelphia, Dec. 27, 1799-

Dear Sir: The enclosed resolutions, which unanimously passed the House
of Representatives this day, will make known to you how highly they have
been gratified with the manner in which you have performed the service as-
signed to you, in preparing and delivering a funeral oration on the death of
General Washington. That our constituents may participate in the gratifica-
tion we have received, from your having so well expressed those sentiments
of respect for the character, of gratitude for the services, and of grief for the
death of that illustrious personage. I flatter myself you will not hesitate to
comply with the request of the House, by furnishing a copy of your oration,
to be taken for publication.

Allow me, while performing this pleasing task of official duty in com-
municating an act of the Representatives of the People, so just to you and so
honorable to themselves, to embrace the opportunity to declare that I am,
personally, with great esteem and sincere regard, dear sir, your friend and
obedient servant,

Theodore Sedgwick.

The Hon. Maj. Gen. Lee.

To this letter Lee replied:

Franklin Court, Dec. 28, 1799-

Dear Sir: I owe to the goodness of the House of Representatives the honor
which their resolutions confer on my humble efforts to execute their wish.

I can never disobey their will, and therefore will furnish a copy of the ora-
tion delivered on the late afflicting occasion, much as I had flattered myself
with a different disposition of it.

Sincerely reciprocating the personal considerations with which you honor
me, I am, very respectfully, sir, your friend and obedient servant,

Henry Lee.3

The Speaker of the House of Reps.

Little more than a week later Lee took emphatic position in behalf of
better organized national defense. As Chairman of the Committee to
Report on Alterations of the Militia Bill he said: ”... the history of
man, from the beginning of the world to this day . . . maintains the
folly of placing the defence of a nation on what we call militia only. . . .

"But when you regard the army as part of a general system of defence,
when you regard it as indicative of the public spirit, it must have its

Tetter, Henry Lee to Sedgwick, Debates and Proceedings 6th Congress, col. 222-223.

THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

293

proportional influence . . . and when you view it as the rallying point
of our militia, in case of invasion, 14,000 well disciplined, well-ap-
pointed troops would not be found an inconsiderable obstruction.. .

Meanwhile, the bill for erecting a mausoleum for George Washing-
ton, the motion for which, at Lee’s earnest plea, had unanimously
passed the House, was meeting with stout opposition. On May 10, it
passed the House by a vote of fiftv-four to nineteen. But John Randolph
was a powerful opponent. Two days later the Senate postponed con-
sideration of the bill until the next session. Lee had reason to be much
concerned, and when Congress reconvened the following November,
he led the movement for the Washington Monument.

When Congress adjourned, the Lees returned to Westmoreland.
Ann’s younger brother, Bernard Moore Carter, was a frequent guest at
Stratford at this time. Lucy, then about fifteen, was the only daughter
of the house. She was a graceful, slender girl with brilliant black eyes
and aristocratic features. Though she was not the beauty her mother,
Matilda, had been, her portrait indicates that as a young girl she was
strikingly attractive. Ann’s brother found her so, and they became
engaged to be married.

On the nineteenth of June, 1800, Ann’s first daughter was born, and
named Ann Kinloch— the middle name being in honor of one of the
family’s friends of the Shirley household years ago. How Carter re-
joiced in that baby sister! At last he was to have a playmate near his
own age. The little fellow was devotedly attached to Bernard Carter
and also to his half-brother, but Henry was twelve years older than
Carter. As for Lucy Grymes, she was always "grown up” to the little
boy. And now she was planning to marry "Uncle Bernard.”

Although no records describe the ceremony or even the date or place,
it undoubtedly occurred at Stratford sometime that summer; and Colonel
Harry probably gave Lucy "a big wedding.” It was the last wedding of
a daughter of the Stratford Lees. One of the wedding presents from
Charles Carter of Shirley to his son, Bernard, and his bride was Wood-
stock, a beautiful country seat in Fauquier County, where thev estab-
lished their home. There was, however, according to Lucy’s mind but
one place in the world to live; and that was not in the country in Vir-
ginia, but in the city of Philadelphia. She endured the country as long

“Speech by Henry Lee against bill for reduction of the army, Jan. 8, 1800. Debates and
Proceedings Congress, col. 274, 275.

294

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

as she could, and then, in order to live in Philadelphia, she threatened to
set fire to Woodstock and burn it to the ground. The threat was evi-
dently effective, for Lucy eventually realized her desire for a home in
Philadelphia.

According to the family account Lucy was highly temperamental,
fond of excitement, variety, and new, interesting people. 'Tve been ac-
customed to live with my father and brother,” she said, "such charming
men! How could I stand Bernard Carter? He is the handsomest man I
ever saw, but such a fool!”

Many of Lucy’s letters survive, but in them she never mentions the life
at Stratford or her stepmother Ann Lee.7

When the Stratford baby, Ann Kinloch, was about four months old,
her mother renewed the interrupted correspondence with her dear
Elizabeth Collins Lee of Sully, explaining why she had been so long
out of touch:

. . . Many of my friends (and you among others I find) have supposed that
when in Philadelphia I ought to have loved, thought of, and written to them
as usual; but my dear you must all learn to know me better when I visit gay
City’s: it was unreasonable to imagine I could find leisure to remember Coun-
try friends while immersed in the pleasures of a City life. — And now I think
you are more vexed with me than ever, but tranquillize your little Ladyship
and believe what is literally true, that while in your charming Philadelphia I
was not Mistress of my time, and since my return to Virginia, have been con-
stantly very much indisposed till lately. . . .

The next session of the Sixth Congress met in the city of Washington
on the Potomac. The power of the Federalists was waning fast. For
every measure Harry Lee espoused he had to fight practically single-
handed. It is doubtful that Ann was with him that winter. With a
six-months-old baby and a two-year-old son to care for, it was hardly
probable that Ann would have left Stratford to bring the children to
live in some cramped, uncomfortable lodgings in a city under con-
struction. Besides this, the family would incur expenses her husband
could not afford. Ann was now beginning to consider gravely this as-
pect of their lives.

7The tradition that Lucy set fire to Woodstock became in time accepted as fact but her
niece, Mrs. Mildred Lee Francis, denies its occurrence. In a letter dated to the author, April 27,
1936, Mrs. Francis says: “Lucy Lee Carter, Harry Lee’s daughter, did not burn down her house
in Woodstock nor any other house she may have had. The life at Woodstock was very dull and
she was anxious to leave the place, and she may have made impatient threats to burn the house
if Mr. Bernard Carter insisted on remaining at Woodstock. I heard this denial of Mrs. Carter’s
responsibility for the fire from an old lady who knew everything that had happened in Virginia
and who, though always wishing to tell the truth, was in no way inclined to defend Mrs. Carter.”

THE RETURN TO WESTMORELAND

295

With his characteristic fervor, Lee was subordinating everything in
his personal or family life to his one purpose of establishing the na-
tional memorial to Washington, which he had worked for in the pre-
ceding session. He had been responsible for the memorial to General
Greene. To Washington, who was in his mind the superior of all men,
a monument should be raised commensurate with his incomparable
service to the country. At the time when Lee’s resolution providing for
the marble mausoleum had unanimously passed the House, the news
of the death of Washington had just reached Philadelphia. A year later
the political opponents of the first President regretted their enthusiasm
and refused to vote the necessary appropriation. Marshall said:

That the great events of the political as well as the military life of General
Washington should be commemorated, could not be pleasing to those who
had condemned, and who continued to condemn, the whole course of his ad-
ministration.

Meanwhile consent for the removal of her husband’s body from
Mount Vernon had been obtained from Mrs. Washington. But matters
were at a standstill and complications began to develop in both the
House and Senate. The disillusioning record appears in the Journals of
1800-1801. As Lee described the situation to Washington’s secretary,
Tobias Lear, he found that securing the necessary appropriation would
be "a difficult business, infinitely more so than you or I thought.”

The cause was Lee’s not only because he was chairman of the me-
morial committee but also, and chiefly, because he worshipped General
Washington. He knew from a lifetime’s association the high character
and the self-sacrifice of the man to whom the American people were
so deeply indebted. Every -word Lee had spoken in his funeral address
came from his heart. No personal defeat so nearly crushed his spirit as
the loss of his fight for the memorial to Washington. That this defeat
was only temporary he had no means of knowing. On March 3, the
Senate voted to pass over the bill "until December next.” Inasmuch as
Lee’s political star was setting and he was likely not to reenter public
life, he would not again be enabled to work for this cause. He never
knew that the idea was also in the minds of others and would eventually
be revived and wrought into marble; that many years after his death
his dream would come true. Yet how few today remember that the
Washington Monument had first root in the imagination and the spirit
of Light-Horse Harry Lee. So in stone and in imperishable words has
he paid tribute to the man whom he described as "first in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

CHAPTER XV: THROUGH CARTER’ S EYES

DURING the summer of 1802 the Stratford family again went on
"a Northern tour” as Carter Lee describes the trip. He was four
years old and his sister, Ann, eighteen months younger. They
drove overland in their coach and four, first to Alexandria and then
by the old stage road to Philadelphia and New York.

Only dire necessity could have prompted this long, rough journey at
such a time, for Ann Lee was expecting the birth of her fourth child
within a very few months. Colonel Harry was without the promise of
any political appointment with its certainty of income, however slight,
and his personal business and semi-public development enterprises were
halted for lack of money. There was always the hope of raising fresh
capital in the north, or at least of collecting old loans from friends
whom he had helped in the past. Severe as the ordeal threatened to be
for his wife, the alternative of leaving her and the children alone at
Stratford was worse. In the face of his former tragic experiences it was
not to be thought of.

Difficult and disappointing as the results proved to be to Ann and
Harry Lee, the journey was a series of magical events to their son Carter.
There was his adventure with a chimney sweep, a queer black imp
from the nether world suddenly emerging from the chimney of the
dressing room of their lodgings in Philadelphia! Then in the strange,
faraway foreign city of New York, in palaces, as he termed the theatres,
to which his father took him, he saw real live "Kings & Queens.” The
most extraordinary event of the entire journey was the coming of a baby
brother.

Years afterwards Carter wrote of it all. Unknown to anyone, his
original manuscript, just as it was hurriedly composed, remained for
over two generations at the bottom of an old trunk in the home of one
of his descendants living in a remote section of Virginia. These remi-
niscences were perhaps written in the closing years of Carter Lee’s long
life:

At present I am engaged about the scenes on the earliest dawn of permanent
memory.

It is among the very interesting regions of mental philosophy. At the period
I now speak of I was four years old, as I gather from the record of the birth of
a brother, who was born during a Northern tour of my parents, made in their
coach & four. & who was named Smith from the hospitable family, in whose
house he was born. Of the incidents of that tour I have but two distinct
recollections. One was of seeing the coach horses let down in the hole of a
vessil. . . .

[296]

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

297

The next is of being dreadfully scared by the hurtling down from the chim-
ney in the room where I was dressing, in Philadelphia, of a chimney-sweep,
whose sooty costume & begrimed aspect, made me, doubtless confound him
with those imps, with which the stories of our nurses, fill the imaginations
of children they would control by fears of them. My father was fortunately
present, who soon relieved me from my alarm. He carried me every where
with him, that he could with propriety, & among other places to the Theatre,
& I remember bragging when I got home of having seen Kings & Queens in
my Northern travels, which I sincerely thought I had done; & it was many
years before I became ware, that it was the representations of these dignitaries
on the stage, & not their majesties themselves, that I had gazed on with such
admiration. When long afterwards, in reading Shakespeare, I first came to
the line, A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!’’ I recollected it as dis-
tinctly as seeing our coach horses deposited in the hole of a vessil, & yet,
strange to say, I can recall no distinct recollection of a theatrical exploit of mv
own, about the time of my adventure with the chimney-sweep, & which, from
a narration of it, I have heard an hundred times, was calculated to make an
impression on my memory as lasting as vivid. It seems, that among the plays
my father took me to see, was "Venice Preserved,” & that when Jaffier of-
fered to kill his wife, I started up in the Box whose position was conspicuous,
& exclaimed in a most menacing attitude to Jaffier — "You shan't kill that
lady!” The applauses of the whole Theatre were deafening, as I have always
been told, — the Actors as well as the audience being delighted with the com-
plete illusion which their art effected in the most unsophisticated of their spec-
tators. . . .

It was probably October or November before the Lees turned home-
ward. Then they went, as Carter tells, by boat instead of driving over-
land. The baby he mentions was born on September second, evidently
an earlier date than expected, when the family was passing through
New Jersey. During Ann Lee’s confinement, she and her family were
the guests of friendly strangers by the name of Smith, living near Cam-
den. So profound was the gratitude of Ann and her husband for the
aid and courtesy given them that they named their new son after this
hospitable family. Sidney, the name of their first born who had died,
was added, being also the name of the British hero so honored in the
Lee family history. But all his life Sidney Smith Lee was known as
Smith Lee.1

'“When Virginia withdrew from the Union Smith Lee served the Southern Navy throughout
the war. No one who ever saw him can forget his charming personality and grace of manner.
He was popular with men and beloved of women, to whom he was ever chivalrous and courte-
ous. His service in the United States Navy was at a time of great importance. He sailed
through many seas, and was with Commodore Perry in Tanan when that country was opened to
the commerce of the world. He served the South as faithfully and unselfishly as he had previ-
ously served the whole country. He died shortly after the Civil War, and was buried in
Christ Church Cemetery at the southwest of the town.” The History of Old Alexandria. Vir-
ginia, Powell, 1928, p. 247.

East passage leading from the Great Hall to the Mother’ s Room.

THROUGH CARTER’S EYES

299

Back again at Stratford, the affairs of the family in the Great House
steadily became more complicated. Each year the Lees grew poorer and
their obligations greater. Colonel Harry’s former high political offices
had always meant more prestige and credit than cash. But scant as the
reimbursement for official services had been, it had meant a certainty
of a small income more or less regularly. Now it looked as if all
chance for even this had gone.

Times must have been equally hard for the Stratford tenants. In view
of Carter’s account of the dependence of these families upon his parents,
it appears unlikely that they were able to pay rent and that any of the
various farms of the Stratford Plantation brought in an income to help
sustain the estate. The steady planting of tobacco for generations had
impoverished all the arable lands. Even had there been a market for
Westmoreland tobacco, as there was not in the early 1800’s, tobacco
could scarcely have been grown at Stratford then. Nor could any other
saleable product in sufficient quantity be produced that would even
pay for itself. To get money out of Stratford there was need to put
money into it. And not a dollar was available. To "live on credit” was
the prevailing custom for many southern families, a custom execrable
from Ann Lee’s point of view and her rigid standards, to all of which in
time her husband came to subscribe — but not until too late.

As master of Stratford, Harry Lee no doubt felt that he was obliged
to dispense hospitality whether he had an income or not. Certainly he
and Ann were forced, in spite of themselves, to continue to carry re-
sponsibility for their tenants as for their own children, and some of
their kin. Probably not even Ann realized the real situation of Harrv
Lee’s finances.

In this period of his childhood, Carter gives an insight into the family
life at Stratford and of his mother’s character. No denial was ever
given, Carter says, "of the favours solicited by the tenants at Stratford
from the family in the Great House.”

. . . & I rejoic[e] now, though I sometiemes grumbled then, at the part I had
to enact in them. The tea & sugar & light bread, or other viand deemed good
for the patient, were considered safer in my hands than in those of the
servants, & I was often made the bearer of them. Besides, it was very pleasing
to my parents that I should be their minister of charity. I can imagine how mv
mother was charmed to think that what I wa[s] doing to the least of these I
was doing unt[o] Him, who did all for us. And these little missions though
often unwillingly begun ended generally, if not always, very pleasantly. For
I was always affectionately received, & usually rewarded with an egg, or sweet
potato, roasted for me at once; or with an apple or peach, or some chestnuts.

300

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

according to the season of my visi[t], And I am sure that these charities of
my parents, have been visited in blessing on their then unappreciative agent.
They taught me early the pleasures of these interchanges of kindness, — how
pleasing it was to make a heart glad, & how the reflection of that gladness on
one’s own heart, was sweeter from the poorer, because intenser. Besides they
made me early acquainted with the pleasures of those humble dwellings, to
which I have been indebted for so many of the compensations of life in the
wilderness. . . .

I remember (how my full, in affection, though half in blood, brother, Henry
(nearly twelve years my senior) used to amuse himself with their wanton
violations of the rules of grammer, one of which was a very often reputed
announcement of the approach of a most interesting event, made in the most
decorous manner. In those days the tenants did not send for Doctors for their
sick, unless advised to do so by the folks at the Great House, to whom they
always came first for advice & remidies. Of course, the first question put by
my mother, — for twas to her they came in my days, at Stratford, — was 'who
is sick?” The answer very often was, "My wife Madam.” "Well, what is the
matter with her?” To which the reply was, almost as often — "Her situation
are obvious Madam; — ” which was their delicate method of [telling] that his
dearer half was about to encounter those perils of her sex, for a safe deliver-
ance from which our Litany so properly prays.

[their] grammatical blunders . . . certainly caused no denial of the

favours solicited. . . .

Here Carter makes another brief excursion into extraneous matters
but comes back in a page or two to his mother and Stratford:

I must recur to the time when she [woman] was playing angel to me as a
mother, & a dear, bright, blackeyed rosy cheeked little sister, eighteen months
younger than myself — We were devoted companions & I remember the joys
we shared in our first joint possession. It was a henhouse, which our mother
had built & stock[ed] for us, & which was adorned, at our special request with
a beautiful white rumpless pullet. O how clean we kept that hen-house, how
well we fed the fowls, & how delightedly we watched the first that went in
to lay an (egg in the nests we made with our own hands!) And seldom had
we heard music so delightful as the cackle with which she announced the per-
formance of that to us, most interesting feat. And to crown all, it was the
favourite rumpless, which set this excellent example to the other pullets, And
afterwards, came music even more delightful, & certainly more tender, in the
chirp of the first chicken, with its head scarcely protruded from its shell.
Wordsworth’s "Curious child, who dwelt upon a tract, of island ground,”
when he placed "at his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell,” &
thought he discovered in its "sonorous cadences” "Mysterious union with its
native sea,” yet found no such joy in these fancied voices of its mighty mother,
as we did in the chirps of that chicken in his natal shell. But I cannot add — -
with Wordsworth; "Even such a shell the universe itself is to the ear of faith.”
Our little chicken-case told nothing to the ear of our simple faith, except that
about a dozen more pipped ones would soon release the heads of their little

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

301

captives, to swell their first born notes into a chorus, more & more to charm us.

. . . Of course, my darling sister & myself had no reflections of this kind,
but rejoiced in the "rattle” & were "tickled with the straw,” which as gifts
appropriate to our ages, of divine love, were talismans of delight.

Carter refers to the visits they received from the Carters and other
neighbors in their coaches and four:

... 1 suppose such visits made greater sensations then on the children of
the households than now, because of the ' good things” the children were then
allowed to have only a taste of. In these times of the sinful indulgence of
parents to every whim of their children, it will scarcely be believed that in my
childhood, they were never allowed to ask for any thing at table, under
the penalty of never having what they asked for. At Shirley, where there was
always a crowd of children, in my childhood there, we sat at a side table, & the
food deemed best for us was sent to us. After that was dispatched, we were
asked what we would have, & if not injurious, it was given to us; but it was a
well established & well known rule that if we cried for any thing we should
never have it. ’Twas early instilled into us that momentary enjoyment was
never to be indulged in at the expense of permanent good. What was best
for us was more regarded than what was most agreeable to us. Over indulgence
subjected its unfortunate subject, not only to the normal effects of it, but to the

almost as normal consequence, ridicule "Honour thy father & thy

mother” were not then mere words to be idly repeated in the Catacism every
Sunday, but the fifth in the commandments of God, & the next in sanctity, as
the next in order, to those more immediately concerning Himself. Is it then so
wonderful that our Revolutionary worthies, being thus brought up, with Wash-
ington at their head, should have been so wonderfully good as well as great?

Nor did this discipline, which would now seem so harsh diminish, but greatly
increased the enjoyments of its subjects. What the children called good
things,” were then rarities, & were proportionately enjoyed. Now they are so
common, & the little dyspeptics (made such by extravagant indulgence in them)
are so cloyed with their sweets, that they have lost their savour to a great ex-
tent. But during my childhood, when company came to Stratford, the good
things” added to our ordinary fare, especially in the way of "desserts,” were
very charming to the children. And the new faces & affectionate greetings of
our visitors received an additional charm from their comparative rarity, & the
livery of their servants & beautiful gaiety of their horses, were to us in our
retired lives, almost what Circuses & Operas are to the prematurely blazeed
Juviniles of our large cities.

In those early days I learned to play chess. My father & mother were pro-
ficient in the game, & I was so absorbed in its attractions, as to forget the
pain attendant upon shedding my first teeth, while playing it, & my father &
mother were fond of adminstering this intellectual remedy for that physical
pain. The consequence was that I became such an adept at the game, that I
could not bear to play with such inferior players, as were habitual visitors at
Stratford. One of them, therefore, paid me to play with him, & others bet at
the game with me, the sums that such payments enabled me to stake. The

302

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

consequence was that, the very first day of this gambling, I went triumphantly
to my mother, with a handful of coppers & fourpences, boasting of the earnings
of my superior skill. But what was my mortification, to be met with a preremp-
tory order of my mother, to return instantly to the loosers all my spoils, — my
”s polio” prima, if not "opinio” — as wages of iniquity which I must never touch
as long as I lived. The gentlemen remonstrated when they met my mother, —
saying that they paid very cheaply for instruction in a game, which they were
anxious to learn, & which I was so well able to teach them; but my pious mother
was inexorable — -"Gentlemen, I wish my son never to bet.”

Besides recording in prose, descriptions of certain of the architectural
features of Stratford Hall and giving his childhood impressions and
recollections of the place and events of the family history, Carter Lee
also wrote of them in verse. Through his maze of awkward rhyme it is
possible to see actual details of life at Stratford and exact pictures of the
grandeur and beauty of the place. He versifies berry picking with his
sister Ann;

Yes even now, methinks I see

My sister, busy as the bee

In picking from the wild vine, berries;

Her cheeks in colour, like the cherries,

Her bonnet fixed with many a pin
Lest the warm sun should tinge her skin,

Which glowed as alabaster white,

More lovely for her black eyes’ light.

We boys without our hats would run,

All careless of the burning sun,

Barefooted over stone & briar
Through scorching sand, or mud & mire,

And every one ashamed would be,

To ask the others, 'wit for me’!

Happy, Happy then were we!

Our father’s & our mother’s joys,

Their daughter fair, & sunburnt boys . . .

He described "sweet Stratford’s woodland scenes,” the play of the
squirrels in the "luxuriant length” of the green boughs, the mourning
of the turtle dove, the scream of the eagle on the cliffs, the howl of the
wolf. He tells of "flower enameled lands,” "sunny lanes,” "forest’s
shades,” the streams, and the far sound of the waterfall — all of which
are clear and faithful transcriptions of the place.

Carter’s bright picture of life in the Great House is that seen through
a small boy’s eyes. His parents were facing one far different. The in-

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

303

ability of Robert Morris to repay the forty thousand dollars Lee had lent
him so long before, brought its logical train of tragic consequences to
Lee and his family. Obligations pledged from this expected fund could
not be met by Lee, and thus he became publicly discredited. He had no
money with which to pay bills, notes to friends and relatives, or taxes
on his large and widely scattered properties. Deed after deed for sales
was brought to Ann for her signature in her husband’s frantic and often
ill-judged efforts to sell, mortgage, trade or convey such lands and
houses as were left him in order to secure cash to keep his family from
want. Stratford and the Loudoun County lands alone he could not
touch. The Great House was his home for as long as he lived, but he
had a life interest only. Matilda’s son, Henry, was the legal heir.

Among many parcels of land sold at a sacrifice, Thomas Boyd men-
tions the hundred acres of valuable property within the District of
Richmond in Henrico County. He records how in July, 1803, when a
note of fifteen thousand dollars came due to Alexander Spotswood for
land, Lee was without funds to pay it. And Spotswood sued him at
Spotsylvania Courthouse, where it was ordered that Lee produce the
sum of ”£3231. 19s with interest at 5 per centum per annum from July
1, 1802, till paid on or before December 1 Next” or be "barred and
foreclosed from all equity of redemption in the mortgage.”2

Exact details of Harry Lee’s dire financial straits at this time are
related by Thomas Boyd. Repairs could not be made on the Great House
or its outbuildings, the stables, or the garden walls. This was perhaps
the period when the building in the west area, conjectured to be the
orangery, disappeared.

One financial disaster after another crept upon the master of Strat-
ford. He was fast being driven to the edge of the precipice. Worst of
all, to his mind, must have been the fact that his wife and their three
children were being thrust there with him and he had to stand by help-
less. He had come to have a deep regard and affection for Ann, and
he was intensely devoted to his children. During that entire first decade
of the nineteenth century Harry Lee’s actions were like those of a blind
man in despair. Over and over again men placed as he was have found
suicide the only way out.

Such a state of affairs had its inevitable reaction upon Ann Lee.
Always frail, she was fast declining into chronic invalidism. She became
subject to fainting spells, when she would lose consciousness for hours

2Boyd, Light Horse Harry Lee, 1931

304

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

at a time. This evidently gave rise to an erroneous report, first published
in Premature Burial, that in one of her fainting spells Ann was pro-
nounced dead by the physician, was buried alive in the vault at Strat-
ford, but shortly thereafter rescued "from her perilous position and a
horrible fate.”

"Had such a circumstance occurred,” says Mildred Lee Francis, "the
family would have known of it and there would have been some men-
tion of it in the Westmoreland County records.” Ann’s "death” would
have been placed on record; notice of the funeral would have appeared;
word of it would occur in family letters or documents.3

i i i i

On May 10, 1803, Ann Lee writes in a melancholy vein to Mrs. Rich-
ard Bland Lee:

. . . my mind often recurs to you with mingled sensations of pleasure and
regret. — Formerly when separated from you, I constantly looked forward to
the period when I should again enjoy your society; but the pleasing anticipation
no longer cheers my future prospects, and I consider you among the number of
those dear friends whom fate has probably for ever severed me from — But
while I lament its award, you will remain the cherished friend of my heart,
united to it, by ties too strong for time or absence to weaken.4

In this same letter Ann refers to her affliction of "dropsy.” It is the
only instance she mentions this or any illness by specific name. It was
characteristic of Ann Lee never to complain of her troubles, though she
frequently deplored her poor state of health.

In her letter of May 3, 1804, to Elizabeth Lee she says, "I am much of
an invalid.” In December of this same year there is a wistful expression:

... I have always felt a particular desire that my Children should form
an intimacy with the offspring of those, whose friendship has most advanced
my happiness: and in wishing its commencement in childhood. I adopt the
prevailing sentiments; tho’ from the testimony of my own heart I am taught
that the union of congenial minds will be as lasting formed in the meridian
of life.

From your letters only I receive intelligence of friends I very much love. A
passing acquaintance sometimes informs me that you are all well, but to a heart
as tenderly attached as mine is to yourself, and several others, to whom your
better fortune has placed you nearer, such information is not sufficiently minute
to render it satisfactory. . . .

How are the dear Children? are they much grown? is my god daughter as

3Aside from the brief statement in Premature Burial, Tebb, Vollum, and Hadwen, second
edition, page 45 (Swan, Sonnenscheim & Co., Limited, London, 1905), sensational accounts
appear currently in various newspapers which have been traced by the author to fictitious
sources. They have no foundation in fact.

4Bland Papers, Library of Congress.

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

305

amiable and pretty as when I saw her? and does her sister preserve her su-
periority in point of beauty? I suppose Ann Matilda reads very well. I often
excite my Childrens emulation by reminding them how prettily she repeated
"The little busy bee” — Carter begs I will send her a piece of poetry he has
committed to memory, which he says she will certainly prefer to The busy
bee” —

In January, 1805, Ann Lee again speaks of "being much indisposed.”
Her philosophy of life and her dread of being pitied by anyone are
clearly indicated in this letter to her favorite brother, Robert Carter,
who has just returned from abroad:

Stratford October Is* 1805

I hope my dearest Brother has not supposed that his illness has caused me
less affliction than his other friends, from my not having expressed it to him,
for I must ever believe my regret to be more poignant than any other persons,
our Parents excepted — -

But having been so often an invalid, I imagine myself adequate to judging
of the feelings of those in a similar situation, and nothing at those periods
excited more painful sensations, than letters of condolence from affectionate
friends.

Your return to America was one of the events I anticipated the greatest
happiness from, that happiness is destroyed by your ill health, but I hope my
beloved Brother it will soon be realized by your complete recovery.

I wish so anxiously to see you, that trifling difficulties shall not prevent my
being gratified, as soon after Mr- Lee’s return from the upper Country, as we
can make arrangements for the journey, and I implore my Heavenly Father,
that I may find you, my best beloved Brother daily progressing in health!

Ann Lee.5

Templemans X Roads

l4t Octor

[Addressed:] Dr Robert Carter
Viz City Point Shirley.

The arrangements for the journey to Shirley to which Ann so looked
forward in this letter apparently did not materialize for nearly ten long
months. With late June of the following year, 1806, in the midst of a
deadly heat, Ann set forth from Stratford, taking Carter, Ann, and
Smith, who was sadly ailing, for this longed-for visit to her old home.

It was as if one of the plagues of Egypt had withered the land. For
months there had been no rain. The leaves of the giant beeches shadow-
ing the east wing at Stratford had shriveled, the box had burned to a
crisp, the vegetables were but leafless stalks, the fruit trees blighted
and the flowers vanished. Most of the streams in Stratford’s forest had

Tarter Manuscript, contributed to Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. Inc., by The Na-
tional Society of the Colonial Dames in Virginia.

306 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

disappeared and many of its springs gone dry. The savage drought ate
up the fields and forests of Westmoreland and all the other counties of
the Northern Neck. Famine was in prospect for many hundreds of
people. The Lees’ rickety carriage passed slowly on in swirling, suffocat-
ing dust through fields of parched corn and wide expanses of wheat,
oats and barley burned to dry wisps of straw. The wide lands between
the Potomac and the Rappahannock, usually so fertile, were like desert
soil.

But in the region of the river James, so went report, there was no
drought. On its sloping green banks, close to the sparkle of the river,
with bowers of trees and vines and roses, Shirley would be for them
like an oasis in the Sahara. In far more ways than even these, Ann must
have thought her blessed home would bring comfort to her tired heart.
There would be much, too, to tell her dear father that could never be
put in a letter, and he would see that their broken circumstances were
mended.

But at Shirley, for the first time in all Ann’s life, grief met them. She
tells of it herself in a letter unknown till now:

Shirley July 6th 1806

Before I arrived at this place, the arms which had ever received me with so
much delight, were folded in death ! the eyes which used to beam with so much
affection on me, were veiled for ever! and the cold grave was closed on my too
dear and ever lamented Father!

It would be vain, to attempt t[o] describe the grief, his loss has occasioned
me, it is greater than I can express, and will only cease with my existence!

Shirley, so lately the scene of happiness and gayety, is now, literally the
House of mourning! We all feel, that our best hopes are buried in the grave
of our blessed, and dearly beloved f[rfiend. — Oh! my dearest Mr- Lee remem-
ber, that your poor afflicted Fatherless wife, can now, only look to you, to
smooth her rugged path through life, and soften her bed of death !

My poor dear Mother is bowed down with sorrow, and in very low health:
a change of scene and climate, appears to be entirely necessary to her recovery:
and I really fear my dear, my being here, will prove an obstacle to her early
removal — The last week in this month, is fixed on for her leaving home: I trust
my dear Mr- Lee you will certainly bring a conveyance for me by that time,
do not disappoint me I conjure you — I wish to see you too, on account of our
unfortunate little Smith; his situation I think, most deplorable — If something
is not done for him immediately, his life I am convinced, will be a burden to
him — The four Physicians who have examined him, confess they are doubtful
what his complaint is — It has increased extremely since you saw him — He
should be placed with a skillful Physician, who would examine him daily, and
thereby discover his disease — Carter has been very sick, and looks badly indeed.
— Let me hear from you immediatly, and forget not my dearest Mr- Lee, to

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

307

guard your health with more care, than you have for several years past — your
life is more important to your poor wife & children now, than ever it was: their
other protector is taken from them, for ever and for ever!8

Ann Lee.

Do not forget I entreat you, to write for Betty in the most pressing manner,
to join me here immediately. A. L.

[Endorsed in another hand:}

From my
Dear wife;

(her fathers
death)

Ann’s father had been her first and her best friend, and his loss to her
was irreparable. Years after her own death, this printed notice of his
passing was found among her papers:

Died on Saturday the 28 — Charles Carter Esqr- of Shirley — aged seventy
years. His long and prosperous life was spent in the tranquil enjoyment of
Domestic Life — where from the Mansion of hospitality his immense wealth
flowed like the silent stream, enlivening and refreshing every object around — -
In fulfilling the duties of his station he proved himself to be an Israelite indeed,
in whom there was no guile He is now gone to receive from the Saviour of
Mankind the blissful salutation — "Come thou blessed of my Father; inherit
the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World for I was a
stranger and you took me in — naked and you clothed me — sick and in Prison,
and you ministered unto me — ”

Ann remained at Shirley with her children for several months. Ap-
parently the carriage in which she had come from Westmoreland had
broken down, and it was the last vehicle in the impressive coach house
at Stratford. Doubtless the rest had long since been seized by creditors.
In November Ann and her mother were spending a few days with the
Walkers at Belvoir and she wrote Mrs. Richard Bland Lee:

I am happy my dear friend in once more having an opportunity of tendering
you my most affectionate regards. When I left Stratford, one of the most
pleasing objects of my Summer excursion, was to pass a few weeks with you:
but alas! the afflicting event which awaited my arrival at Shirley, made an entire
change in my plans, and suspended every inclination, but that of enjoying the
presence of my only Parent.

When my Mother quitted this place, I should certainly have visited my Sister
Randolph, and from thence hastened to Sully; again to have possessed the
happiness of seeing you, which I have so long desired: but the want of a car-
riage has been the obstacle to my enjoying so great a gratification: and now
when I get one, the Season will be so far advanced that I must return home

“Original letter from Ann Lee to her husband, Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

308 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

by the most direct rout. May I not my dear friend when there, calculate on
seeing you in the course of the winter ? I know not whether you have a carriage,
but should I get one (which is somewhat doubtful) it can never be appro-
priated more to my satisfaction, than in conveying yourself and dear family,
to our poor old dwelling. . . .

Stratford had become "our poor old dwelling”! It was not until after
Christmas that Colonel Harry succeeded in getting a conveyance to
bring his family home, and then but an open carriage. How cold must
have been the tedious jolting drive back to Stratford, and how bleak
and cheerless the Great House when finally they arrived! Ann took
a severe cold from which she did not recover for months. The Great
Hall was seldom used in winter. Even with the charcoal braziers it could
not be made comfortable. Only in the east wing were the rooms
habitable. On the north side of this wing was the dining room and
pantry, where the family could be served from the kitchen outside. In
this same wing, was the large southeast chamber which looked out on
the beech trees and the garden and toward the south front of the man-
sion. Here a log fire burned, and on sunny days the warmth streamed
through the many-paned windows. Here Ann and the children lived
and here were the preparations being made for the new baby coming so
soon. Meagre enough, no doubt.

But with Carter and little Ann and Smith close by, full of their own
particular joys in being back at Stratford, yet probably bubbling over
with recollections of the fun they had had at Shirley, and with Betty at
hand to wait on her, undoubtedly there were some recompenses for
Ann Lee in those first drear days of early January of the year 1807.

Mrs. Richard Bland Lee was then in Philadelphia for the winter. On
January 11th Ann wrote her from Stratford a letter containing this fre-
quently quoted passage:

That part of your letter which relates to your expecting another son shortly,
is so defaced by the seal, that I cannot understand it; I applied to your husband
for an explanation, and from his answer, I suppose he also has reason for such
an expectation — You have my best wishes for your success my dear, and
truest assurances , that I do not envy your prospect , nor wish to share in them.

Not even to this intimate friend, who was herself an expectant
mother, would Ann Lee reveal the facts about her own situation. Per-
haps under the existing conditions there were no words for it. How
could another child be received at Stratford with gratitude and rejoic-
ing? Eight days aften Ann wrote this letter, her baby — a son — was born,
January 19, 1807. He v/as her fifth child. She named him Robert Ed-

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

309

ward, after the two brothers she loved most, Robert and Edward Carter
of Shirley.

Some three generations before in this same room where Robert E. Lee,
Ann’s last son, was born, his father’s patriot kinsmen had also come into
the world: Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, and William and Arthur
Lee.7 This southeast chamber was always the Mother’s Room of Strat-
ford Hall. Hannah Ludwell Lee, the first mistress of the house and
the mother of the revolutionary patriots; Elizabeth Steptoe, wife of
Philip Ludwell Lee, and her daughter, the Divine Matilda — these three
women had each occupied this room in the years before Ann. And
the youngest of the Lee children always slept in the nursery adjoining.

When Robert Edward was about seven weeks old, his mother wrote
to Richard Bland Lee, who was as deeply concerned as his wife about
Ann and about his brother’s financial difficulties. But not even from
these devoted friends and relations could Ann Lee bring herself to
accept favors:

Stratford March 12th 1807

My dear Sir:

I feel extremely indebted to you for the interest you manifest in my welfare
— My Mother has an objection to vesting her money in negroes, having already
more of that kind of property than she wishes for: and I should feel great re-
luctance in proposing to her the plan suggested by your friendship for me, as
my Ott'n benefit is the principal object of its design.

I am nevertheless my dear Sir, fully sensible of your kindness, in contem-
plating which, my mind most forcibly reverts, to the numerous obligations you
have confered on my family, which have extended their influence to me, and
left on my heart an impression of gratitude and affection, which death only
can obliterate. I hope my dear Sir, you will not feel any farther uneasiness,
from our being deprived of John & his family: I assure you I have long since
ceased to regret such privations. I have just received intelligence, that the
darling Sister of my heart (Mildred) is following rapidly, my ever lamented
Father & Brother to the tomb! in such heavy calamities, with which I have been
sorely oppressed for the last sixteen months, all lesser ills are absorbed.

Please to assure my dear friend Mrs- Lee, of my unvarying affection: and
accept dear Sir, the highest esteem, and most affectionate regards, of your
sincere friend8

Ann Lee.

7“. . . But the house [Stratford] is more remarkable for being the birthplace of two of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, and also of my brother Robert, who was born in
the same chamber as they were.” Genealogical History of the Lee Family of Virginia and
Maryland from A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1866. With notes and illustrations: edited by Edward C.
Mead. New York, Richardson and Company, 1868.

8Bland Papers, T.ibrarv of Congress.

Guardian angels of the Nursery at Stratford.

THROUGH CARTER'S EYES

311

There are two endorsements as follows:

Mrs. H. Lee
March 11. 1807.

Westmoreland Co VA
March 16 1807.

Addressed: Richard B. Lee Esquire
Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania

i i i i

The winter passed. In the nursery at Stratford the baby slept, warm
and comfortable, in his swinging cradle. The two tiny winged cherubs
carved on the iron fireback of the little fireplace there, guarded him — so
Carter may have thought — while he slept. With the early spring there
came, like the quality of mercy, the gentle rains from heaven upon the
earth beneath. Softly falling rains, unceasing rains by night, prayed for
in vain the year before. And the sun shone by day. So the streams
gushed forth again; the fields, parched in the long drought, revived;
crops were rich and plentiful. Once more the people had the necessities
of life, and everywhere distress was relieved. A wealth of fruit blossoms
blew over Stratford in March and April, and over the other plantations
and farms of Westmoreland County near and far. The land between
the two rivers, last year a desert, once more was lush and green.

So bright were the new days and months that throughout this land a
formal Thanksgiving was proclaimed for the blessed year, 1807.9

’See Supplementary Records: Annals of Westmoreland County, 1806-1807.

CHAPTER XVI: STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATFORD

HALL

A FTER the birth of Robert, business troubles and anxieties con-
tinued to press harder than ever upon his father. Yet Colonel
JL jL Harry apparently gave much thought and time to the education
and training of bis sons — "my dear boys” he called them. This is evi-
dent from his letters to Ann and Carter as well as from Carter’s own
memoirs.

Referring to this period, Harry Lee says to Ann that when "with my
dear boys I as anxiously inculcated by precept & example . . . the
wisdom of the habit of rising early & going to bed early, as the first
cannot be practised without the last. The great english statesman &
orator Earl Chatham, stresses this habit strenuously — these are his words
'if you do not rise early, you never can make any progress worth talking
of[’]; & another rule is, if you do not set apart your hours of reading,
& never suffer y.r self or any one else to break in upon them, your days
will slip through your hands unprofitably & frivolously unpraised by all
you wish to please & really unenjoyable to yrself” — The great american
soldier & statesman always rose with or before the day, & told me him-
self, that had he not happily been from early life accustomed to rise
early, he never could have executed the dutys which devolved on him
in the course of life.”1

Colonel Harry may have faced quite suddenly the realization that,
with four sons to pattern themselves after him, he must needs mend his
own irregular habits. He seems to have had more human faults and
frailties than other Lees. He may have been at times more "convivial”
than they (excepting for the one instance recorded by John Adams of
Richard Henry’s being "high” ) . Possibly he swore on occasions as Alice
Lee says he did. If so, he stopped it. Carter declares he never heard his
father utter an oath. Perhaps he gambled. Few gentlemen of his day
did not. In any event, Colonel Harry took good care to exhort his sons
against the contraction of debts and to support Ann in her dictum: "I
wish my son never to bet.”

Their father saw to it that his boys learned to shoot and to ride, and
gave a gun and a horse to Henry, Carter and Smith before they were ten
years old. It appears that at this time Colonel Harry assumed his didactic
role: determined to be "an example” to his sons — to instill in them
"good habits and high principles of conduct and of speech.” In order to

1 Henry Lee to Ann Lee, September 3. 1813: MS., Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation
[312]

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATEORD HALL

313

be on perfectly safe ground, he therefore started out by rigorously train-
ing them to do everything their mother said. At least Ann would always
be right.

From his later letters to his wife it is evident that they had a mutual
interest and concern in building their children’s character, and that they
frequently had long discussions about this and other abstract subjects:

Learning only becomes most valuable & is by me only wished for my chil-
dren; to open to their view the charms of virtue & to bind themste[a]dfastlyto
its practice in word & deed. To be virtuous — reason & experience tell us we
must be religious — Hold fast yourself (& inculcate on your brother to do like)
this sheet anchor of happiness, this cititadel [citadel] in the perils & tempests of
life — Cherish it fondly & abhor its two great enemys superstition & enthusiasm.
What I understand to be pure religion is a heart void of offence to God & man &
a belief or faith in one God who delights in right & reproves wrong — the forms
& ceremonys of religion differ, but in essence they all worship the almighty
Creator & rest on his providence & protection here & hereafter — among the
ancients I would select for my sons reading Cicero de Nature Deorum & Plato
- — among the moderns the history of jesus Christ commonly called the new
testament, especially its four first books.

Whether Christ was an inspir[ed] man as some beleive, or the son of God as
Christians assert & some of them beleive, all must acknowledge the excellence
of the morality he taught & wish its spread for the good of mankind —

As to the sects with us, I cannot help thinking the Quaker mode of worship
most expressive of mans humility & therefore to be preferred.

In silence they adore God, to whom the tongue of man cannot utter appro-
priate ideas & therefore rightly does the quaker apply silence as best expressing
our inferiority & Gods superiority— best comporting with our nothingness &
his supremacy. But the form of religion is unimportant & may be left with
the individual — not so as to its obligations & duties —

I have always admired the fulness & revered the truth so well expressed bv
a roman, Ingratum qui dixerit, omnia dixit. No man can be good without
being grateful in heart & to whom ought man to be most grateful but to his
highest benefactor his prop, his stay, his comforter & his protector — Religion
commands man to love adore in the warmest feelings of gratitude the great
God — Virtue inculcates the same obligations & flourishes in mind & in act
under the benign mantle of religion — 2

The inner life of the family at Stratford had a certain harmony re-
sulting from love and consideration, although their material circum-
stances were daily becoming more desperate. Harry Lee reared his
children to regard their mother’s word as law. In small as well as
large matters, they were instructed that their mother was their first con-
sideration. Carter and his younger brothers always occupied the nursery,

2Excerpt from original letter from Henry Lee to Ann Lee, Sept. 3, 1813, manuscript col-
lection. Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. Inc.

314

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

the small room connected with their mother’s room. So solicitous was
Colonel Harry about Ann’s health and comfort that he never permitted
his boys to make the slightest noise in the nursery or leave their beds
until their mother was awake.3

Although Colonel Harry loved each of his children, he was especially
devoted to Carter. "My dear son Carter,” he always said in addressing
him, or in speaking of him: . . the darling child not only was dear

to me from birth, but has tenderly loved me from the dawn of reason if
I do not deceive myself ... he has been from the hour of his birth un-
changeably my delight. . . . ”4

During Lee’s discouraging stay in New York and Philadelphia in
1802, when he tried in vain to recover money he had lent others, and to
raise funds to provide for his family and to save his business projects,
Carter was his closest companion. The child’s little hand had been
clasped tightly in his whenever they walked out together. What father
could forget such an experience?

The hours when Colonel Harry was off-guard and was just himself —
not so much teacher as friend of his boys — were doubtless the times
when they were most influenced by the relation of his experiences and
his own ideas and attitude. Particularly by the way he introduced them
to the Greek and Latin historians, poets, and dramatists — his familiar
and beloved friends. The definite, personal way in which their father
made both Henry and Carter acquainted with the classics colored their
entire future outlook, as their writings of later years show. The scholar’s
world became a part of theirs. Colonel Harry began to teach Carter
Latin before the boy was six years old. When he was nine he could read
Latin easily.' Smith and Robert, being too young, were not to have their
father’s guidance, and were to suffer the lack of it all their lives.

One of Colonel Harry’s best-loved "treasures,” next perhaps to the
Ajax of Sophocles, was a seal ring which had belonged to a Roman
consul. This he gave to "my dear son Carter” who cherished it always.8

At Stratford, for the three preceding generations, governesses and
tutors had been members of the household. It appears that there were

“Statement to author by Mildred Francis Lee, daughter of Charles Carter Lee.

'Henry Lee to Ann and Carter. Sept. 3, 1813; Lee Foundation.

“Carter Lee passed on his father’s friendly and informal instruction in the classics to his own
son, Robert Randolph Lee. An incident is told in the family that when Thackeray visited Mr.
George Taylor, father-in-law of Carter Lee, in Richmond, in the early eighteen-fifties, he was
impressed with Carter Lee’s knowledge of the classics. “Where is that delightful gentleman I met
last evening?” he asked, “who quoted Latin and Greek as if they were English?”

“This ring was bequeathed by Carter to his son, Robert Randolph Lee, who owns it today.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATFORD HALL

315

none at this time, however; both parents served in this capacity instead
in a more or less desultory manner.

During 1807, Matilda’s son, young Henry, was sent to boarding
school at Lexington— to Washington College. Because of the competent
tutoring he had received from his father, he was prepared in one year to
enter William and Mary. Through his mother’s estate and his father’s
action, provision was made for Henry’s education and patrimony, when
on September 26, 1808, Henry Lee made an indenture that:

Whereas Henry Lee, Jr., conveyed 1,600 acres in Fairfax County Called
Langley to Richard Bland Lee & whereas Henry Lee, Sr., is desirous of in-
demnifying his son for the same, also out of natural love & affection & in con-
sideration of one dollar the said H. Lee. Sr., doth hereby acknowledge to his
son "the Sugar Lands in Loudoun County of twelve hundred acres, Morton’s
Island in the Potomac, also Eden Island, all of which were” part of the estate
of the late Matilda Lee, mother of the said H. Lee, Jr., & in which said H. Lee,
Sr., possessed a life estate only.

As Carter grew older, as old as twelve or thirteen, he and his father
would talk together like friends of the same age. Carter says his father
told him stirring events of the Revolution and brave tales of his old
companions in arms, and that he read to him — young as he was — letters
and manuscripts, public and private, that were in the Stratford library
where Chatham’s portrait hung:

... I have been familiar from my childhood with the faces of many . . .
illustrious men, as they looked from their portraits in my father’s house, who
first passed into the broad sun-light of liberty from the shadow of that eclipse
which was projected on the new world by the towering shores of the old. I
have read in their own manuscripts, on the paper touched and folded by their
hallowed hands, their public and private communications, all breathing the
ardor of patriotism and the counsels of wisdom. . . . how dear to the human
memory is the natal place; how fondly we recollect the green we first played on,
the paths we first rode, the trees we first climbed, the flowers we first pulled,
the faces we first loved; if you will reflect how the owners and the ornaments
of this cherished spot, who likewise illustrate our own birth, become entwined
with ourselves and mingled with our self-esteem as we travel along in life, and
are continually driven by its sorrows to cling to its imperishable consolations,
— then will you appreciate the pleasure I would take in expatiating upon the
feats, in the Senate or the field, of those illustrious men to whom I have alluded.
It would but be mingling the flow of filial affection and patriotic feeling were
I to run over our toils and our triumphs from the monumental heights around
Boston to the unmarked battle fields of Georgia; for either by his sword or his
pen, the memory of my father is connected with them all. . . ,7

7Charles Carter Lee Papers, Archives Department, Harvard College Library.

West passage leading to the parlor and the Cherry Tree Room.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATEORD HALL 317

The end of Colonel Harry’s happy companionship with his children
was perilously near. His creditors, a besieging army, were incessantly at
Stratford’s gates/ Under Virginia laws, this was more than a mere an-
noyance, for the debtors’ prisons of Virginia awaited the man who could
not meet debts which his creditors brought into court.

Light-Horse Harry Lee was at the uttermost end of his resources. He
had not foreseen how completely incidental misfortunes and circum-
stances, over which he had no control, as well as his own impractical and
ill-judged actions, could operate to his ruin. Robert Morris’s inability
to repay Lee the forty thousand dollars lent long before, was responsible
for many of the unpaid obligations. In 1801 Morris, who had financed
the Revolution, had come out of debtors’ prison in Philadelphia, broken
in health and financially ruined. No return from the government had
ever been made to Harry Lee for the thousands of dollars of his patri-
mony spent in 1776 to equip his first cavalry troop with arms, ammuni-
tion, uniforms, horses, and provisions. None had ever been asked. He
had spent time and money to obtain recompense for his legionnaires
after the Revolution — never for himself/

With Jefferson in power, Lee’s political eclipse was now complete.
There was no chance for him, a Federalist, to hold office either in Vir-
ginia or in the national government during Jefferson’s administration.
His frenzied attempts to borrow from one man to pay another, to mort-
gage or split his properties, giving one part on account of an obligation
here, another part there, or to finance various projects and land specu-
lations— all this added to the chaos of his affairs. And he had lived on
credit even longer than most of his fellow Virginians, much longer than
Ann approved. There was little excuse for it; where he had sown, he
must reap. It was too late now for him to do other than to unite with
Ann in training their sons to steer a different course.

It is not surprising that, in his acute distress of mind, he became ill
in the winter of 1808-1809, or that Ann, always frail, was also stricken
and moved like a shadow about the house.

“Explicit records of Lee’s debts, amounts, circumstances, names of creditors, etc., are set
forth in Thomas Boyd’s Light Horse Harry Lee.

““My grandfather was a soldier and a statesman, not a business man. He could have paid his
debts if others could have paid him. But no one blames Mr. Robert Morris, he was just un-
fortunate as my grandfather was. They two were friends. . . . Why General Harry Lee should
have been called discredited because he lost money I can’t see. Jefferson owed money and his
friends came forward and paid so that he might have no trouble. No one called Mr. Robert
Morris discredited and he had the same fate as General Lee.” Statement by Mrs. Francis in
personal letter to writer.

318 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Lee decided that the only hope for their recovery was a warmer
climate. First he thought of going to the Bermudas; an old friend, liv-
ing there in prosperous circumstances, pitied Lee’s desperate plight,
and offered him and his family a home and competence. It would, how-
ever, be difficult to leave the United States.

To Lee’s anguish over the state of his personal affairs was added
heavy concern over the condition of his country. He witnessed what
must have seemed to him the end of the self-government for which he
had fought in the Revolution. For nearly two years Jefferson’s Embargo
Act had virtually isolated the United States. All foreign trade by land
or sea was illegal. Thousands of men once engaged in such trade were
now ruined. The wharves were piled mountain-high with tobacco,
cotton, wheat, corn — rotting where they stood. The government treasury
was empty. If Lee had not had so unswerving a loyalty to his country’s
laws, he might have taken passage with his family secretly on some
sailing vessel headed for the Bermudas or South America. But he re-
fused to put himself in a class with the smugglers and illicit operators,
whose number was legion. He wrote Secretary Madison:

. . . as to myself, no British vessel can be found & no American vessel can
be procured but by illicit contrivance & to such means (proud as I am) I can-
not resort. The Brazils is the best place for me to go & if you will appoint a
consul there & he is a good, friendly man I could venture with him. Such an
appointment being made, the President] would be authorized to give me a
let[ter] congratulating your friend on his safe arrival in that quarter of the
globe, such a letter would authorize the President] to send a vessel with the
bearer of the letfter]. Such is my distressed condition that I humbly expose
to you such ideas as occur to me, favorable to my wishes, hoping that you will
if you can aid me in my very painful situation.

The request was futile. Just why James Madison did not respond
favorably to his old college classmate, friend, and colleague is not
known. All that Harry Lee needed was official sanction for a plan
clearly outlined. He wrote again to Madison: "I despair of success
unless I can be permitted to go out in one of our own sailing vessels
chartered for the purpose expressly prohibited from taking anything
on board but stores for the voyage & those only in amount as the col-
lector may direct. The state of my own health my physician considers
imperiously requiring a sea voyage.” Lee went to Washington for
further pressing of his plea. Meantime Ann’s condition took a turn for
the worse. She became gravely ill and wrote her husband from Strat-
ford, the last letter she thought she would live to write.

Again he appealed to Madison:

Portrait of William Pitt which hung at Stratford : from engraving of original allegorical
portrait by Charles Willson Peale, now at Westmoreland County Courthouse.

320

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The last letter from my family commands me to make the only effort in my
power to preserve a life, the loss of which will bear me to the grave with
unceasing woe. We sh[oul]d have gond to the Bermudas where I have a fast
friend who had offered me his house, even purse. But our condition with G.
Britain arrested our plan. . . . Brasil is dry & warm & with that government
we are on a friendly footing. It is the only spot at this time open to a person
situated as I am.

I had wished that I could have been made useful to my country, but this wish
I forego if improper, tho I feel not the weight of the objection to my proposal.
I have served in war and in peace the U. S. I never asked for any office or even
favor before from government or any member of government. Nor sh[oul]d I
do so now but for the peculiarity of my condition. It is done with reluctance
altho to you in whose friendship of most men on earth I have ever greatly relied.

There was no response.

With the passing of the cold weather both Ann and Harry Lee re-
gained their health in some degree. But their days in the Great House
were sharp with apprehension. The long-dreaded event, Lee’s arrest
and imprisonment for debt, came in April. A writ obtained by certain
Westmoreland creditors was "executed on the within-named Henry
Lee” and Lee was committed by the County sheriff to "the prison
bounds” at Montross.

His son Henry says:

Gen[eral] Lee was cast into a loathsome jail, and subjected to the combined
persecution of political rancour, personal cupidity, and vulgar malice. Yet he
never for a moment lost the dignity of his deportment, or the composure of his
mind, never once descended to complaint, or stooped to importunity. . . .
The pain of imprisonment he generously soothed by celebrating the exploits of
his great commanders, Washington and Greene; by saving from oblivion the
names and actions of his companions in arms, and by recording for the instruc-
tion of future ages, the principal events of his own life. While he dwelt on
these grateful and heroic themes, which smoothed the brow of misfortune,
not an unfair opinion or ungenerous sentiment escaped him. His book is stained
with no prevarications or calumnies, no evasions or contradictions — no slanders
of rivals or of foes, and (though it contains political reflections) there is not
to be found in it a single expression disrespectful to the laws of his country,
detrimental to the union of the States, or injurious to the rights or liberties
of the citizen.10

The idea of such a book had been stirring in Lee’s mind for years.
His military comrades, when first hearing of his design, had been eager
to contribute to its fulfilment. Circumstances, however, had not per-
mitted Lee to take up the work, and it had been deferred from year to
year. Now many of those old companions were dead, but the several

10 Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, by Henry Lee, pages 180-181.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATFORD HALL

321

survivors among them were to respond with friendly interest and give
Lee the additional facts he needed to begin his undertaking. The ma-
terial for his history was organized and classified in his extraordinary
memory to such a degree that in the quiet of the Montross jail he was
able to begin the work of composition, and to write with as much poise
and serenity as if he were in the library at Stratford:

The determination of the mind to relinquish the soft scenes of tranquil life
for the rough adventures of war, is generally attended with the conviction that
the act is laudable; and with a wish that its honorable exertions should be
faithfully transmitted to posterity. These sentiments lead to the cultivation
of virtue; and the effect of the one is magnified by the accomplishment of the
other. In usefulness to society, the difference is inconsiderable between the
conduct of him who performs great achievements, and of him who records
them; for short must be the remembrance, circumscribed the influence of pa-
triotic exertions and heroic exploits, unless the patient historian retrieve them
from oblivion, and hold them up conspicuously to future ages. "Saepe audivi,
Q. Maximum, P. Scipionem, praeterea civitatis nostrae praeclaros viros, solitos
ita dicere, cum majorum imagines intuerentur, vehementissime sibi animum ad
virtutem accendi. Scilicet non ceram lllam, neque figuram tantam vim in sese
habere; sed memoria rerum gestarum earn flammam egregiis viris in pectore
crescere, neque priiis sedari, quam virtus eorum famam atque gloriam adae-
quaverit.”* — Sail Bell. Jugur.1'

Regretting, as we all do, that not one of the chief actors in our camp or cabi-
net, and indeed very few of our fellow-citizens, have attempted to unfold the
rise, or to illustrate the progress and termination of our revolution, I have been
led to this my undertaking with a hope of contributing, in some degree, to
repair the effects of this much lamented indifference. With this view I am
about to write memoirs of the Southern campaigns, being that part of the war
with which I am best acquainted, and which in its progress and issue materially
contributed to our final success, and to the enlargement of our military fame.
Desirous of investing the reader with a full and clear understanding of the
operations to be described, I shall commence these memoirs at the beginning
of the third year of the war; for the principal events which occurred thereafter,
laid the foundation of the change in the enemy’s conduct, and turned the tide
and fury of the conflict from the North to the South.

So runs the introductory chapter of Lee’s Memoirs of the War in the
Southern Department of the United States. It was to become the chief
source book of the American Revolution in the South, distinguished by
specific and exact facts, clear portraits of men, and vivid descriptions of
places, battles, marches, and engagements, strengthened by Lee’s techni-

nOften have I heard, that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other renowned men of
our commonwealth, used to say, that whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they
felt their minds vehemently excited to virtue. It could not be the wax or the marble that
possessed this power ; but the recollection of their great actions kindled a generous flame in
their breasts, not to be quelled till they also by virtue had acquired equal fame and glory. [Lee’s
translation.]

322 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

cal military knowledge, colored and deepened by his passion for the
classics. The actors and the times are brought in its pages to vigorous
life, as in his description of a cavalry engagement on the banks of the
Schuylkill:

The fire of cavalry is at best innocent, especially in quick motion, as was then
the case. The strength and activity of the horse, the precision and celerity of
evolution, the adroitness of the rider, boot-top to boot-top, and the keen edge
of the sabre, with fitness of ground and skill in the leader, constitute their vast
power so often decisive in the day of battle.

The Memoirs and his son’s statement show that Harry Lee triumphed
over the misery and wretchedness of his lot: the vicious air, the dark
cell, oozing dampness and vermin, wretched food, the filthy cot, the
depression and agony of mind and spirit. Had he not been through six
years of war? Here was one fight more. Whatever there was to face
he would face.

Thoughts of another man who had just such a fight to wage, must
have come to Harry Lee. Like him, Sir Walter Raleigh had been thrown
into a loathsome jail, but by courage and reflection had triumphed over
his long days of distress. Even as the shadows of London Tower and
the block itself lie over Raleigh’s History of the World, the air of the
debtors’ prison in Virginia breathes through Lee’s Memoirs. The very
lines that Walter Raleigh wrote a little while before his death, Lee
might have spoken to himself:

Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,

And pays us but with earth and dust;

Who in the dark and silent grave,

When we have wandered all our ways,

Shuts up the story of our days;

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,

My God shall raise me up, I trust.

Ann Lee’s distress over her husband’s fate and the public humiliation
to which the family was now subjected can be surmised. She never
spoke of it herself. With the exception of a brief reference in one of
her heretofore unpublished letters, quoted here, there is a heavy silence
over Stratford during those long months of Lee’s incarceration, first at
Montross, and then in the jail at Spotsylvania Court House. Nearly two
years of confinement!

This much is plain: in prison he decided not to live again with his
family. His reason for such a decision is not known. Because he was

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATEORD HALL

323

without means to support his family or even himself, he may have felt
that he could not add to Ann’s burdens. There never was what is termed
a "break” between himself and his family, "every member of which
loved and reverenced him always.”12 But, overwhelmed with grief be-
cause of the disgrace and sorrow he had unintentionally brought upon
those he so dearly loved, he might perhaps have imagined they would
not want him to return to them.

But the dark mood passed, as Ann relates in a letter to her brother-
in-law, Carter Berkeley, when she says that her husband assured her that
his intention was to live with his family "after his release from his pres-
ent situation.” Ann could not bring herself to write the words, "im-
prisonment” or "jail.”

Carter Berkeley had invited her to bring all of her children to Edge-
wood, his home near Fredericksburg, and live permanently with his
family. His wife, who was one of Ann’s sisters, had died early in No-
vember of that year, 1809. His own children were motherless; Ann’s
children, for the time being, were fatherless, and in the face of Harry
Lee’s expressed intention might always be so.

Ann wrote from Stratford on November 26, 1809:

My Dear Dr ,

I received yesterday your letter of the 6th instant — The painful intelligence
it contained, had been a fortnight before, communicated by Sister Braxton. I
feel most sensibly for you, for your dear Children, and on my own account. I
have lost my beloved Sister and friend! but her dear memory will ever be most
fondly cherished in my heart; and I have an humble hope, that our separation
may not be eternal! To you my good friend, I can offer no consolation; for at
present, your situation does not admit of any: but the tim[e] I trust will come,
when your sorrows will be alleviated, and that tranquillity of mind restored
you, which you are now so entirely deprived of.

Our loss has been most afflicting dear Dr-, but our comfort is great; we know
that our dear friend is for ever removed from pain and distress; and we hope
and believe, that her pure and virtuous life, has insured her endless ages of
unfading felicity! I must now hasten to reply to the principal subject of your
letter, as the post goes out tomorrow; and my letter must be conveyed to the
office, at an early hour in the morning —

I had intended to write more fully on the subject, but my Sister Carter arrived
to dinner, on her way to Richd: Hill, and I could not leave her, till she had
retired to her room; and it is now nine ’oclock. I must begin with thanking you
for your generous offer my dear D.r: for my feelings most powerfully impel
me to do so; for tho’ you would throw the obligation on yourself, I can discover
a great portion of benefit designed me; for which, I shall be ever most truly
grateful: nor let my declining to accept it, wound your feelings, or make you

12Statement to writer by Carter’s daughter, Mrs. Francis.

324

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

confide less in my affection and friendship] for yourself and Children. M.r
Lee in all his letters, requests I will remain here till his arrival — that the
negroes may also remain, and that I should not take any step, towards fixing
myself elsewhere: this he says, is for the mutual benefit of Henry, myself, &
himself — I gave him a positive promise on first getting home, that I would do
so, reserving to myself the right, of choosing my place of residence afterwards,
and only going so far in the interim, as to make inquires, respecting the practi-
cability, of procuring a place in the part of the [w]orld I wished to fix in, and
adv[i]sing with my friends on the subject.

M.r Lee constan[tl]y assures me, his intention is, to live with his family: after
his release from his present situation, if so, you will readily see, the propriety of
my not adopting your plan: but should he not my dear Dr-> excuse me when I
say, I fear I could not be happy, any where but in my own house — I assure you,
I could live as happily with you, as with one of my own Brothers; but I feel an
unconquerable inclination to fix myself permanently, be it in ever so humble a
manner, and must indulge myself, in at least, making the attempt — There, dear
Dr-> any of your Children should find as many [co]mforts & advantages, as I
should have the power of bestowing on [paper tornjrn. The dear little boys I
presume you would keep with you, [paper torn] protector & guide they could
have, and Elizabeth requires advantages a [paper torn], which I am not quali-
fied to give her, but dear little Ann, I hope [paper torn] could render every
service, necessary; but could you dispense with Elizabeth’s possessing those ad-
vantages, or should I live in, or near a town, where they could be obtained,
then my dear Sir, bring them both to me, and I will exert all the energies of
my soul, to render their irreparable loss, as little felt by them, as possible. I
reflect on yours, & my dear Brother’s visit, with much satisfaction; I hope I
shall not be disappointed; but dear friend come, believing my mind fixed, on
the subject in question, and do not ask me to change it, as it will be most painful
to me to deny you.

May all manner of consolation be administered to you my good friend, now,
and in time, may your happiness be completely renovated.13

Ann Lee.

[Addressed: ]

D.r Carter Berkeley 12 o/o
Frederick[s]burg Edge Wood
Post to New found Mills.

Ann Lee seems to have brought to bear upon her problems a certain
new strength, practical common sense, and independence born out of
the contingency itself. Her decision was to leave Stratford, and to find a
permanent home for her family in some other locality in Virginia.

By the terms of the trust Matilda had had drawn up, Harry Lee had
life tenure at Stratford: but she, Ann Hill Carter, his second wife, had
not. Matilda’s son, Henry, was the heir-at-law of Stratford. Henry was

13 Ann Lee to Carter Berkeley; MS., Lee Foundation.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATFORD HALL 325

then past twenty-one; and, excepting for the technicality that gave his
father legal ownership of the Great House and the estate, young Henry
was to all intents and purposes its master. He was about to graduate
from the College of William and Mary. Soon he might be thinking of
marriage. Stratford belonged to him, not to Ann or her children. There-
fore Ann Lee began to make inquiries among her friends and kinspeople
about a new place to live. Fortunately, from her father’s estate, pres-
ently to be settled, she would have a definite income that would always
provide for her and the children. After all, in spite of everything and
everybody, it would be possible to preserve her family’s independence
and dignity. She decided at length to settle in Alexandria. The little
city was close to Washington, in the event her husband should ever re-
enter political life. At least he could see old friends and would be
nearer people and places with which he might need to be in touch in
his new career as a man of letters. There would be schools for the
children and a physician close by. Furthermore, living in Alexandria
were many of the kinspeople, family connections and friends to whom
they were devoted and who were devoted to them. Besides, by estab-
lishing a home there, one of Ann’s most cherished desires would be
realized: that, as she expressed it, her children should form an intimacy
with those of her closest friends, "whose friendship has most advanced
my happiness.”

She was quite ready to leave Westmoreland. For the children the
mere idea of moving, even though it was from so dear a place as Strat-
ford, probably filled their days with stir and excitement. Ann waited
only for her husband’s return, as she had promised him to remain in the
Great House until he came back.

During the long, lonely months, Ann Lee had need of all the faith
and fortitude she could summon. Years later her husband said of her
in one of his letters to Carter: "... your dearest mother is singularly
pious from love to Almighty God and love of virtue, which are synono-
mous; not from fear of hell — a low base influence. ...”

Apparently Ann disciplined herself to such a degree that at last she
could command her emotions and her grief, and maintain a poise, seren
ity, and common sense that kept Stratford from becoming a house of
mourning, that enabled the children to study and play as they were ac-
customed to do.14 Their father had frequently been away from them

14“My father and my uncles loved Stratford and held their lives there as most blissful,” says
Mildred Lee Francis, “Every memory my father had of Stratford was a bright and happy one.
The devotion between his father and mother was very great, he said. Harry Lee was patient
and loving towards his children, all of whom had a great love and reverence for his memory.”

326 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

before on his business ventures. Undoubtedly he had gone this time
for just a little while longer. Soon he would be back with them.

One knows that Ann derived additional strength to face her problems
from the fact that Robert, scarcely two years old, needed her so. The
other children were big enough to take care of themselves. But Robert
was the baby. He was a child of a singular beauty of face and form and
a disposition even-tempered, gentle, and sweet. Her baby whom she had
not welcomed! Now in a bleak world he was her chief comfort, her
recompense for all the sorrows of her days. So was forged the bond
between mother and son that lasted for them both until the end of their
lives.

Sometime later — it may have been the March or April of Robert’s
third year, for it is among his earliest memories of Stratford— his
mother planted a horse-chestnut tree in the garden. This he remembered
all his life. As long afterward as the eighteen-sixties he said: "The
horse-chestnut ... in the garden was planted by my mother. . . . ”15
Though unseen for years, he said every feature of Stratford was familiar
to him; that here were "the scenes of my earliest recollections and hap-
piest days . . . endeared to me by many recollections, and it has been
always a great desire of my life to be able to purchase it. . . . ”16

Several other horse-chestnuts grew near the Great House, with giant
beeches, hickories, the weeping willow and the row of Lombardy pop-
lars. Two tall box trees stood like hooded monks before the smoke-
house. The brick walls surrounding the garden were so high that the
children could not see over them into the orchards and the fields, unless
they lifted each other up to look. The Great Spring at Stratford was
a strange, mysterious place. Although there were springs innumerable
in the forests of the plantation, there was but one Great Spring — that was
at the foot of the steep hill before the north entrance of the mansion.
Here, nearly a century before, had President Lee built the circular spring
house, of the same brick of which the house itself was made. The tops
of the tall trees around it were almost on a level with the ground on
which the Great House was built. They completely hid it from sight,
and also hid the Great Spring, which fed the streams and rivulets flow-
ing through the deep, fern-clad ravines like silver threads winding over

“Excerpt from letter by R. E. Lee to his daughters, written from Savannah. Georgia, No-
vember 22, 1861 : from Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, by his son, Captain
R. E. Lee.

“Excerpt from letter bv R. E. Lee to Miss Minnie Ward, of Warsaw, Virginia, written in
the spring of 1866: from Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee, by J. W. Jones, 1906.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATFORD HALL 327

mossy rocks and many-coloured stones on and on to the river. To a
child, the house must have seemed the top of the world, and that deep
gulf of shadow, where the spring was, was surely the bottom.

"You did not mention the Spring,” Robert says, "another object of
my earliest recollections.” He never forgot it, and, perhaps because of
the wild flowers that grew there, he always knew and loved other wild
flowers in other far-away places — even on battlefields — long, long after-
wards. Carter also knew well every wild flower and bush and tree that
grew in their "mountain wood” at Stratford and blossomed in early
March or April: the hawthorn, the crab apple and dogwood, the wild
grape and azalea. So lovely were they he called them "the sweets of
solitude” and he could not help but put them into verse:

The service boughs, the first to fling
Out their white banners to the spring,

Had lost their blossoms, and had blown
The sweet crab-apple flowers and gone;

Nor with the dogwood’s bloom of light
The sunny ridges now were bright;

But by the streams the grape’s perfume
Fell O’er the azalia’s golden bloom.

These with each shade of yellow tinge
The mountain vales profusely fringe;

And in such ample globes they glow,

And into bowers so lofty grow
The stranger almost deems he roves
A wilderness of orange groves.17

i 1 1 1

It was just at this season that their father came back home to stav.
How terribly long his business had kept him! Colonel Harry’s trunk
and boxes were full of papers, letters, documents — the source material,
and many chapters in manuscript, of his Memoirs. They must be re-
written and reorganized, and home was the only place where this could
be done. Also he must confer with certain of his former brother officers.
Ann’s decision to move immediately from Stratford wavered before her
husband’s desire and need to remain there until his work could reach a
more promising stage and he could obtain the new material he required.

His debts and obligations had amounted to many thousands of
dollars. It is not known just how they were settled, but the creditors
were satisfied, and the court order obtained for Lee’s release. Undoubt-

17“The Maid of the Doe : A Lay of the American Revolution by An United States’ Man
[Charles Carter Lee].”

328 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

edly his brothers and other relatives or friends with perhaps some of
Ann’s relatives, combined forces and came to his rescue at last.

Colonel Harry could now feel in an easier frame of mind and make
steady progress with his book. For months he had been in correspon-
dence with old companions in arms, or sons or friends of theirs: John
Eager Howard, Otho Holland Williams, Colonel Mercer, Nathanial
Pendleton, and several others. When Lee was in jail, friends of his in
Alexandria, Philadelphia, and New York, receiving the facts and in-
formation he needed, would send or bring it to him at the prison. Some
of these letters and manuscript documents which formed source material
for his book have since been found. Blotted, stained, and mildewed
from the prison damp, they give mute testimony to the courage of Light-
Horse Harry Lee.18

So, comfortably at home once more, Colonel Harry went on with his
research and writing. If the additional facts he needed could not be
sent him by letter, he would arrange to get them by personal interview,
at Stratford or elsewhere. On August 16, 1810, Lee wrote Major B.
Hannah at Leesburg:

Dear Sir

I wrote to you some weeks past begging you to come and spend some days
with me at Stratford. As you did not comply with my request, I will try again
to see you by inviting you to ride to Mr. Israel Lacey’ tomorrow where I will
wait the forenoon for you. Whence you will proceed with me to Mr. Carter’s
I hope.

At all events I shall save an opportunity of asking you some questions, which
I think yr. memory will enable you to answer with accuracy and which I desire
to know.19

H. Lee

Sully

In the face of so important a work as her husband’s Memoirs, Ann
continued to defer moving from Stratford. Then too, it was difficult to
uproot the family. The children were so happy in the country!

So the summer of 1810 passed. There were still more chapters of the
book to be done. Autumn came. The manuscript was not finished.
The family was not ready to go. Not until December or perhaps the
week of the new year of 1811 — the date is not recorded — were their
preparations finally made to leave the Great House.

The library was left intact at Stratford. So were the family portraits,
including the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Harry Lee. The greater part of

18Original documents found by author, and photostats made for Robert E. Lee Memorial
Foundation, Inc., by Yale University Library.

19Original letter in collection of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER STRATFORD HALL 329

the furniture, which had been there for nearly a hundred years, was also
ieft. Among the few pieces known to have been taken to the new home
was Robert’s cradle. He had, of course, outgrown it, but in a few weeks
it would be needed again. Ann expected her next baby in February.

The last of the vehicles was brought out from the huge bare coach
house. The Stratford family packed in their belongings and started on
their long, rough drive across country.

"A Carriage Goes to Alexandria” is the significant heading of the
opening pages of Douglas Southall Freeman’s R. E. Lee. This move
signalized a sharp turning point in the history of the Stratford family; a
complete severance with Westmoreland and the past, bringing new
horizons for the children and new hope, perhaps, for Ann and Harry
Lee. The prelude of Robert’s life, and that of his brothers and sister,
written at Stratford, was over and done. The first chapter of their new
lives was now to begin in a new place — the first chapter of Robert’s
life, the last of his father’s.

CHAPTER XVII: TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

A FTER Stratford’s broad acres and deep forests, the towering cliffs,
the white beach, the mill pond, and the woodland paths and
.A JX roads, the city of Alexandria must have seemed to the Lee chil-
dren a cramped and curious place. Many of the houses were in rows;
others were set in garden squares separated by box hedges or wrought-
iron fences which could be vaulted in a leap. Chimneys were built up
their sides instead of being formed into towers as they were at Strat-
ford. Uneven sidewalks of red brick, flagstones, or planks, and long
cobblestone streets got lost in the distances or dropped suddenly off
into the river. There was no beach, no sea shells, no strange sea weed
drifting in with the tides from the Chesapeake. Instead, there were
docks and wharves with fleets of sailing ships and boats, far more than
ever rode at Stratford Landing.

Yes, Alexandria was a queer place. The Potomac here did not seem
to be even related to their river at Stratford. But the city had much the
plantation did not have. There was the Friendship Fire Company, with
a real engine given by General Washington himself, and a theatre such
as Carter had seen in his travels north. There was a Masonic Lodge, a
free school, a dancing academy, the Stabler-Leadbeater apothecary shop,
and many other shops and stores. Besides all this, horse races took place
when the Fairfax Jockey Club met just outside the city. There was a
lovely churchyard, like a picture, around their new church — Christ
Church. They had rented a house near by at 611 Cameron Street. It was
a comfortable two-story brick house with a side yard. Almost the entire
first floor might have been placed in the Great Hall at Stratford; but
the house was pleasant and cozy, even if it was small. For several years
it served as their home.

To Ann and Harry Lee, the move to Alexandria must have had at
least some of the recompenses Ann had foreseen. A number of other
families in the little Virginia city on the Potomac had also left remote,
isolated great houses in the country. The plantation life of a generation
before was changing rapidly. The younger sons of the great houses
were establishing themselves in the ministry, in law, medicine, in trade,
and making their livelihood in towns and cities.

Besides the Chantilly, Stratford, and Leesylvania branches of the
Lees who had settled in Alexandria, there were also living in the city,
or near it, the families of Fitzhugh, Custis, Stuart, Washington, Fair-
fax, Lewis, Blackburn, Mason, Carlyle, Randolph, Dulaney, Carter,

[330]

TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

331

Alexander, Ramsey — many of whom were related or connected with
the Lees. Members of these families now became intimately associated
with the transplanted Stratford family. Ravensworth, the estate of their
kinsman, William Henry Fitzhugh, became in time the Lees’ second
home. Arlington, presided over by Colonel Fitzhugh’s sister, Mrs.
George Washington Parke Custis (Mary Lee Fitzhugh), was another
lovely country home to which the Lees also became attached. Among
other places they knew well were Abingdon, Hope Park, and Ossian
Hall of the Stuarts, Mount Vernon, Woodlawn, and Rippon Lodge of
the Washington, Lewis, and Blackburn families, and Gunston Hall of
the Masons. Then too, William Lee’s daughters, Portia and Cornelia,
were living in Alexandria.

Ann and Harry Lee and their children found themselves in a city of
friends. The situation of the Stratford family was, however, strikingly
different from that of most of their Alexandria relatives and friends,
who were enabled to build beautiful houses and who brought in their
furnishings from the country. The belongings of the Stratford family
had, for the most part, been left in the Great House. So far as is known,
a few books, Light-Horse Harry’s clock, and Robert’s cradle were all
they brought. Their limited means did not matter so much in Alex-
andria as in some other city where they might not have had so many
friends.

The poor health of their daughter, Ann Kinloch, remained a source of
anxious concern. The child had a serious affliction of the hand and arm
which made her peculiarly nervous and delicate. It had evidently begun
in infancy. She was under the continual care of physicians in Alexandria
and Philadelphia. Eventually, Judge Storrow says, the child’s arm had
to be amputated. Another daughter was born February 27, 1811. She
was named Catharine Mildred for Ann’s favorite sister but she was
always called Mildred.

An important factor in the family’s rehabilitation, for it was essen-
tially that, was the distinguished character of the new undertaking in
which Harry Lee was now engaged: the completion of his Memoirs.
Many of their friends and neighbors might not read his book; few,
doubtless, would buy it. But all would commend the undertaking and
respect the author and his family. In this new place, the Stratford chil-
dren would no longer be the children of a man but recently released
from debtors’ prison, but the children of Lee the historian. It would
again be recalled that the master of Stratford Hall was the famous Light-

332 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Horse Harry Lee of the Revolution, "Virginia’s favorite Souldier,” and
three times her governor.

So the Memoirs, even in embryo, paved the way for a new and hap-
pier outlook. Harry Lee was always referred to now as "General Henry
Lee” instead of "Colonel Harry,” and Ann became "Mrs. General Lee.”

Lee was hopeful that his book would bring in much-needed financial
returns and perhaps launch him on a career that would give him and
his family means as well as honors. The manuscript was completed by
the autumn of 1811. That it did not immediately find a publisher must
have been a disillusioning experience for its author. Finally a Philadel-
phia firm, Bradford and Inskeep, contracted with Lee for the publish-
ing, and in 1812, the book made its appearance. The Alexandria Gazette
printed the announcement: "Just received. Memoirs of the War in the
Southern Department of the United States. By Major General Henry
Lee. Two volumes, octavo. Price six dollars in boards or seven dollars
bound.” Other newspapers in Baltimore, Washington, New York, and
Richmond published notices and reviews.

The Daily National Intelligencer said:

[In the] Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United
States. . . . the difficulties and privations endured by the patriotic army em-
ployed in that quarter — their courage and enterprize, and the skill and talents
of their faithful, active, and illustrious commander, are displayed in never-
fading colors; a work, to use the language of the publishers by the perusal of
which "the patriot will be always delighted, the statesman informed, and the
soldier instructed. . . . [It] bears in every part the ingenuous stamp of a
patriot soldier; and cannot fail to interest all who desire to understand the
causes, and to know the difficulties of our memorable struggle. The facts
may be relied on, "all of which he saw, and part of which he was.”

The book, however, did not achieve the financial or literary success
it deserved. It has more calibre and substance than Washington Irving’s
work, yet Irving, curiously, was so entrenched in men’s minds as the one
great American man of letters that there seemed no room in the public
consciousness for another author. Who was an author from Virginia?
The appearance of Lee’s Memoirs was an important literary event of the
first quarter of the nineteenth century. Such success as did come, how-
ever, apparently fixed Lee in his determination to go on with the writing
of historical works. He continued to collect material for biographies
of Washington and Greene.

The convenience of living in Alexandria was a welcome contrast to
life in Westmoreland, especially in so stirring a period of the nation’s
history. On the Potomac, as well as on the Hudson, experiments with

Mildred Lee Cbilde, youngest child of Light-Horse Harry and Ann Lee: from a plate of
the original drawing.

334 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

steam-propelled boats were continually in progress. Always interested
in the economic, industrial, and commercial development of his country,
Lee must have observed with zest the new methods of transportation
by land and water, as they supplemented those with which he was fa-
miliar. The changes resulting from Eli Whitney’s invention of the cot-
ton gin were absorbing topics. There was much talk of Captains Lewis
and Clark of the Northwest Expedition and of Captain Zebulon Pike,
all of whom had opened new horizons to the west. Young officers of the
United States Army and Navy were taking rank as scientists, explorers,
discoverers. Something besides a war machine was being built by them.
If the new republic could but have a breathing space — respite from war
and talk of war!

But the menace of war with Great Britain had been close at hand since
the year of Robert’s birth, when the English sloop, the Leopard, had
fired upon the United States frigate Chesapeake in an attempt to force
its search for British seamen. In an effort to give his countrymen the
actual facts, Lee wrote a pamphlet addressed to the people of the
United States, urging them "to draw back from an unjust war, which
with Great Britain at this period is certainly so. Let us go into the in-
quiry,” he says:

Three grounds of difference exist between us:

Impressment of our Seamen.

The Orders in Council; and
The Attack upon the Chesapeak.

The right of impressment has always been exercised by all the maritime
powers of Europe, whose naval superiority secured to them its effectual appli-
cation; and it ought always to be acquiesced in so long as it is confined to mer-
chant ships, and to the subjects or citizens of the impressing power. The sole
difficulty on this point is to reduce the exercise of the right by mutual agree-
ment, into convenient practice. A state of war ought never to have been selected
as the period for such discussion and arrangement, especially with England,
situated as she was: it seemed to evince the ungenerous determination to take
advantage of her distresses, in the settlement of a dispute on which no influence
ought to be imposed but that which arose from truth and justice. Besides, the
actual state of things authorized delay to a more convenient moment; it being
indubitable that the number of British tars in our service, very far exceeded
that of ours in their employ. But I confess the last consideration is not material
with me; for I am persuaded that wisdom directs us to confine ourselves to the
employment of our own citizens only in our own ships, public and private. It
would be better to give a bounty to produce this practice than to depend upon
any resource not growing out of our soil like our oaks. ... We come lastly

TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

335

to consider the outrage on the Chesapeak. It was indubitably an act of hostility,
and good cause of war, had the British government justified the act. What was
the conduct of the British government on the occasion? The moment it was
known, its proper organ communicated it to our minister in London, anxiously
soliciting information on the subject; deploring the event, and avowing a readi-
ness to make ample satisfaction in case the British officers should have been
culpable.

This first step on the part of the aggressor certainly merits approbation. The
second is in unison with the first. The British government abjured the preten-
sion of a right to search ships of war in the national service of any state, for
deserters; and declared that if the act of the British officers rested on no other
ground than the simple and unqualified assertion of the above pretension, the
king has no difficulty in disavowing that act, and will have no difficulty in mani-
festing his displeasure at the conduct of his officers. What could be uttered
better adapted to manifest the solemn determination of the British govern-
ment to render complete satisfaction for the outrage committed upon our
honour ? . . . 1

However, in numerous Alexandria homes there was ceaseless anxiety
for fathers or sons, sailors on merchant vessels, who had been impressed
by British ships on the high seas. Worse than this, other seamen from
Alexandria had been captured by pirate ships of the Barbary Powers
and thrown into Algerian prisons. These atrocities took place with the
secret connivance of England, France, and Spain.

What was happening to people in Alexandria was happening to many
families in other river towns and seaport cities on the Atlantic seaboard.
By 1812 more than a thousand American-born seamen had been im-
pressed into service on British ships. But with England crippled by its
war with Napoleon, men of the Federalist party hoped, as Lee did, to
have the wrongs adjusted by other means than war. Experienced in war
as Lee was, no man deprecated its coming more vehemently than he.
Yet every day the situation became more tense, more threatening.

The fair promise of industrial and commercial prosperity was not to
be fulfilled. The Twelfth Congress, opening its sessions in the new
Federal capital across the Potomac from Alexandria, saw a new genera-
tion of politicians, new sensational ideas, and measures which to Lee’s
mind were ominous and boded ill for the country. Under the leadership
of Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, the War Democrats were shaping
legislation to fit an immediate state of war. Congress voted to raise the
regular army from 10,000 to 350,000 men.

Resistance of the Federalists to the war measures of Congress and the
administration was strengthened by a series of editorials in a Baltimore

1A Cursory Sketch of the Motives and Proceedings of the Party which Sways the Affairs
of the Union, by General Henry Lee. Philadelphia, 1809. Pages 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29.

336 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

journal, The Federal Republican, written by the editor, who was also
the owner, a socially prominent young Marylander, Alexander Contee
Hanson. To Hanson Harry Lee was as devoted as if he had been his
own son. Hanson’s father, Lee’s close friend, had been the Chancellor
of Maryland and compiler of the laws of that state, published in the
volumes known as "Hanson’s Laws.” At the beginning of his career he
was an assistant secretary to General Washington and later one of the
first judges of the General Court of Maryland. Young Hanson’s grand-
father, John Hanson, had also been a friend of Light-Horse Harry Lee,
of Richard Henry, and Francis Lightfoot Lee. For John Hanson was
one of the "founding fathers” of the nation, and on November 5, 1781,
had been elected President of the Congress at its first meeting after the
signing of the Articles of Confederation. A man of exceptional moral
fibre and personal force and decision, he had helped greatly to uphold
the morale of the colonies and to steer them in a wise and self-respecting
course. For several generations the Hanson family, early settlers in
Charles County, Maryland, had been friends of the Maryland branch
of the Lees, established by Philip Lee, son of the second Richard and
brother of Thomas and Henry Lee. Associated in county, state, and
national affairs, the Hansons and the Maryland Lees were also con-
nected by marriage.

In his editorials, young Alexander Hanson pointed out the reasons
why the United States should not plunge into war and stoutly opposed
every step taken by the War Democrats to bring on the catastrophe. The
Federal Republican was widely read and was swaying public opinion.
But there was savage antagonism to the young editor, and he was
threatened with violence.

On June 1 President Madison sent his war message to Congress.
Eighteen days later war was declared. Far from being received with
enthusiasm and acclaim by the nation, the declaration was a signal for
general mourning. Ships in the harbors put their flags at half-mast; at
public meetings throughout the north and east, resolutions were passed
denouncing the war as unnecessary and ruinous. A Peace Party was
formed by the Federalists. But most of the southern states were in favor
of the war. Maryland was sharply divided — Annapolis was in a furore:
the State Senate passed resolutions approving the war; the House dis-
approved them. Yet at the same time the representatives passed resolu-
tions pledging their lives and fortunes in the country’s defence. In
Baltimore, war hysteria was rampant, and opposition against Hanson
and The Federal Republican took on dangerous aspects.

TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

337

With all the eloquence at his command, Hanson condemned the war.
In an editorial published in his paper the day after war was declared, he
said:

Thou has done a deed whereat valour will iveep.

Without funds, without taxes, without an army, navy, or adequate fortifica-
tions, with one hundred and fifty millions of our property in the hands of the
declared enemy, without any of his in our power, and with a vast commerce
afloat, our rulers have promulged a war, against the clear and decided senti-
ments of a vast majority of the nation. ... We mean to represent in as strong
colors as we are capable that it is unnecessary, inexpedient, and entered into
from partial, personal motives. ... We mean to use every constitutional
argument and every legal means to render as odious and suspicious to the
American people, as they deserve to be, the patrons and contrivers of this highly
impolitic and destructive war, in the fullest persuasion that we shall be sup-
ported and ultimately applauded by nine tenths of our countrymen, and that
our silence would be treason to them. . . .

His emphatic words were answered by meetings throughout the city,
at which the War Democrats and city officials harangued the people
against Hanson’s views and put forth the idea of suppressing his paper
by violence. Several hundred men and boys, armed with axes, hooks,
and ropes, surrounded the office of The Federal Republican, a frame
building at Second and Gay streets. Smashing doors and windows, thev
seized the presses, type, and paper, and flung them into the street to be
destroyed. They tore down the entire building, board by board. The
death of one of their own gang, killed by a fall from the second story,
increased their wrath.

Hanson had taken temporary refuge in the village of Rockville. His
staff had also left the city. The mob, balked in their plan for vengeance
on Hanson and his men, turned to the negro quarter of the city to attack
defenseless blacks, and then to the docks, where they dismantled vessels
from Spain and Portugal. Almost the entire day and night of June 22
the city was in the hands of the rioters.

Alexander Hanson was not the man to run from such a challenge, nor
were his friends. From that instant the political character of the contest
changed. No longer an attack against the administration and the War
Democrats, it became instead a struggle for civil liberties, for a free
press and free speech.

Were the city of Baltimore and the State of Maryland to be permitted
to repudiate the State’s own constitution and that of the United States?
"Until the Federal Republican revives we have no press in Maryland!
God grant it a speedy, permanent and honorable resurrection!” Hanson
received many such messages. His friends pledged their support to the

338 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

cause, and to him. Immediate preparations were made to print the paper
again.

General Lee was among the first of Hanson’s friends to come to his
aid, notwithstanding the fact that he had just accepted the commission
of Major General in the United States Army, offered him by President
Madison. Although for years Lee, strenuously objecting to the war, had
been as outspoken in his views as was Hanson himself, he now felt
obliged to support the official act of Congress. But he could not coun-
tenance defiance of the Constitution of the United States or of the guar-
anteed privileges of any American. Were these now to be violated and
traduced by an ignorant and vicious mob and by sinister forces in high
office?

Eighteen years before, in the Western Insurrection, Lee had led a force
of 15,000 men to defend the Constitution against rebellion. Here was
just such another struggle, but under far different circumstances and
far more serious in its implications than the Whiskey Rebellion. For
this was a threat to the integrity of the spirit of the Constitution. The
very existence of the Bill of Rights might be at stake.

Lee’s views were shared by another veteran of the Revolution, James
Maccubin Lingan, then Collector of the Port of Georgetown. Like Lee,
having fought for the very liberties now being denied an American citi-
zen, General Lingan was ready again to take up arms to hold and con-
serve those rights. Among the younger defendants of civil liberties who
joined Lee and Lingan in pledging immediate aid to Hanson and their
lives to defend the cause, were Captain Richard Crabb, Dr. Philip War-
field, Charles J. Kilgour, Otha Sprigg, Ephraim Gaither, Henry Nelson,
Robert Kilgour, Peregrine Warfield, Harry Gaither, and John Howard
Payne. According to their sworn testimony at the official hearings, their
only motives were "to protect the person and property of Mr. Hanson
and defend the liberty of the press with their lives, if necessary.”2

The Federal Republican was at once reestablished in Georgetown,
and printed and distributed there until July 26. On that day, Lee,
Lingan, and the younger men, all heavily armed, met Hanson in Balti-
more, and fortified the recently abandoned home of one of Hanson’s
staff, a narrow three-story house on Charles Street near Market.

Hanson hoped that the presence of his friends and the prospect of
resistance would prevent the repetition of violence, show that he was
not to be intimidated from publishing his paper, and that he was ready
to repel force by force. In view of his experience General Lee was

2Scharf, Vol. Ill, p. 20.

TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

339

asked to direct the group — about thirty, all told — of Hanson’s friends
in the defense of the house. Arms and ammunition were brought in
during the day and night in the face of a gathering mob. On Monday,
July 27, copies of The Federal Republican, still printed in Georgetown,
were sent to Baltimore for distribution.

The spirit of lawlessness bred of several years’ constant defiance of
the Embargo Act among groups of ignorant men and boys in seaport
towns, undoubtedly played a part in the cold-blooded attempt at mass
murder that followed, with, as Scharf points out, the full knowledge and
treacherous connivance of the civil authorities of Baltimore, the militia,
and others in high political office who have never been identified.

There is nothing to mitigate the horror of what took place during
those two days. It was a miracle that any one of the men escaped with
his life. Having resisted the mob’s attacks on the house for twenty-four
hours and kept them at bay, Lee’s men reached the end of their re-
sources. At least ten of the group had been sent out from time to time
for food, more arms, reenforcements, or aid from the civil authorities.
None had found it possible to reenter the beleaguered house where their
companions were facing a death struggle. According to the depositions
quoted by Scharf: "This remaining number was barely sufficient to man
the essential stations. There were none to relieve them. The effects of
fatigue and want of sleep began to be felt. Those of hunger and thirst
must soon be added, for their stock of provisions and water was small,
and a supply was impossible. To a military man of judgment and ex-
perience like General Lee, these circumstances would naturally appear
in all their force.”

When the mayor of Baltimore and the general of the militia sent
Hanson and Lee a guarantee of safety if they would all go to the city
jail, General Lee overrode Hanson’s objections and took the civil author-
ities at their word: "He saw the defence necessarily and rapidly becom-
ing weaker, while there was reason to believe that the attacking force
would greatly and rapidly augment. Being a soldier too himself, he
could not doubt a soldier’s honor, nor believe that General Strieker, who
had served like himself in the war of our Revolution, could abandon
those who surrendered their arms on the faith of his word.” Accord-
ingly Lee gave his opinion in favor of a surrender. "Several others . . .
declared for the same course. But Mr. Hanson, more ardent because
younger, smarting under wrongs unredressed, and flushed by the hope
of gaining in the end a glorious victory, and less confiding ... of the
persons on whom they were invited to rely, strongly and pertinaciously

340 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

opposed this sentiment to the last, contending that if the defence was
really impracticable ... it was better to die there with the arms in their
hands, than to surrender for the purpose of being led through the streets
like malefactors, and in the end massacred by the mob. . . . The opin-
ion of General Lee, however, finally prevailed, and the whole party . . .
surrendered themselves into the hands of the civil authority. An escort
of horse and foot was provided by General Strieker, and they were con-
ducted from the house to the jail . . . between eight and nine o’clock in
the morning.”

One of the chiefs of the mob said '' ' . . . we shall take them out of
the jail tonight and put them to death.’ This intention was publicly
. . . avowed in the course of the day . . . express invitation to that
effect was given the principal democratic paper of the day, and the
preparations for carrying it [the massacre} into effect were openly
made. . . . An order was obtained in the legal form to call out the
military for the protection of the jail, but directed expressly that they
should be furnished with blank cartridges only.” Even this poor pro-
tection was soon removed when the militia was dismissed. This the
rioters regarded as a signal to attack.

The mob gained possession of the principal entrance into the prison, but
there were still two very strong doors to be forced before they could reach the
party within. One of these doors detained them more than a quarter of an hour.
Whether it was finally forced or unlocked is not known. When they reached
the last door, after a few slight blows it was unlocked. . . . This was the post
in which the plighted faith and honor of Gen. Strieker should have placed him;
but . . . [it] was left . . . unguarded. When the victims saw the danger ap-
proach nearer and nearer they calmly prepared for their fate, but resolved to
make every possible effort for effecting their escape. Hanson recommended
that they should all rush among the mob, put out all the lights, create as much
confusion as possible, and by that means . . . escape. Both he and Lee urged
their companions not to fire on the mob. Two of the group failed to heed the
order and threatened to shoot the first assailants who replied T can kill you!”

All were then rushed upon and the massacre commenced. Hanson’s
plan availed a number of his friends, nine or ten of whom made their
way through the crowd in the darkness and confusion.

But it was useless to himself, because he was known to Mamma, the butcher
[one of the mob leaders who had previously been taken into the jail by civil
authorities for the purpose of identifying Hanson and his supporters}, who now
recognized and knocked him [Hanson} down after he had made his way to
the . . . hall of the jail. He was then dreadfully beaten, trampled on, and
pitched for dead down the high flight of stairs in front of the jail. . . .
[Mumma] was posted at the door to mark the victims as they came out, and
designated them for slaughter by giving each a blow or two, which was the

TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

341

signal for his associates, who proceeded to finish what he had begun. The fate
of Mr. Hanson, befel General Lee, General Lingan, Mr. Hall, Mr. Nelson, Mr.
Kilgour, Major Musgrove, Dr. P. Warfield, and Mr. Wm. Gaither, all of whom
were thrown down the steps of the jail, where they lay in a heap nearly three
hours.

During this whole time, the mob continued to torture their mangled bodies,
by beating first one and then the other, sticking pen-knives into their faces, and
hands, and opening their eyes and dropping hot candle grease into them. . . .
Some of the victims were rendered wholly insensible by the first blows which
they received. . . . While General Lee’s mangled body lay exposed upon the
bare earth, one of the monsters attempted to cut off his nose, but missed his
aim, though he thereby gave him a bad wound in the nose. Either the same per-
son or another attempted to thrust a knife into the eye of General Lee, who
had again raised himself up. The knife glanced on the cheek-bone, and the
General being immediately by the side of Mr. Hanson, fell with his head upon
his breast, where he lay for some minutes, and he was kicked or knocked off. A
quantity of his blood was left on Mr. Hanson’s breast, on observing which one
of the mob shortly afterwards exclaimed exultingly, See Hanson’s brains on
his breast.”

The men were left for dead. The leaders of the mob resolved to
come back the next day to hang the bodies and then dissect them. While
they were debating whether or not to immediately cut the throats of all
their victims, a young physician in their midst whom they doubtless
considered one of themselves, induced the mob to place "the dead
bodies” under his care until morning. The ruffians finally consented
and went away from the place planning to return in a few hours.

The physician was John E. Hall, a graduate of Princeton University.
With the aid of several assistants who appeared as soon as the mob had
gone, he carried the wounded and unconscious men back into the jail
and resuscitated them — all except General Lingan. With difficulty, Hall
overcame the jailor’s objections to his stratagem and had the victims
removed from the jail before dawn to places of safety. Hanson asked
to be carried to General Lingan. He stood silently over the dead body
of his old friend for a moment, then was placed on the back of his
rescuer and hurried from the jail. Any moment the blood-thirsty mob
might be back. Hall obtained a carriage to take General Lee to the hos-
pital "where his wounds were dressed by the physician, and he received
every assistance of which his deplorable and mangled situation ad-
mitted. Hence he was next day conveyed to the country.” Lee was
driven over the State line and secretly placed in a house or hospital at
Yorktown, Pennsylvania. A letter dated at Yorktown, August 7, 1812
partially describes his condition:

342

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

On the crown of his head, there was a wound about one inch square, which
must have been made with a stick or club. It had been sewed up; the bone of
the head is not fractured, and this wound seemed to cure fast. On his left
cheek, there is a deep cut, as if made with a penknife. His nose was slit with a
knife as far as the bridge, and having been immediately sewed up, seems to
be united and is doing well, and the nose has its natural form. His right eye
had been dreadfully bruised, and is still closed; it is believed the sight will
be preserved. The upper lip has been stitched up. He sees out of the left eye,
which also was severely bruised; and both sides of his head, his whole face
and his throat, from his ears to the breast-bone, are shockingly bruised and
much swollen. This arose from efforts to strangle him, and to this cause his
inability to speak or to swallow any solid food at this period is attributed.
There are some bruises from the club on his left thigh, which are not to be re-
garded now.3

In this letter no mention is made of the serious internal injuries Lee
sustained, which were to cause his death after six years of prolonged
suffering. For days he lay in agony at Yorktown. His death was reported
several times in the newspapers and a number of eulogies appeared. So
far as is known, no mention was ever made then or in any biographies
of Lee written since of the great cause for which he had given his life.
Not for many weeks was it known whether he would survive.

Late in September Lee was carried to his home in Alexandria where
Ann and their children could care for him. Lucy Grymes — Mrs. Ber-
nard Carter — expecting the birth of a child, could not go to her father.
She wrote of her distress to her great-aunt, Alice Lee Shippen, then at
Oxford. Alice replied in her letter of September 17: "Yes I have heard
of the sad catastrophy at Baltimore. How meloncholy to think of, how
painful to write of, but I must just mention it. However it is pleasant
to reflect that the worst is over, that your dear Father is out of danger.
I hope I shall see him on his return to Virginia.”4

Not one of Lee’s family — not even his wife or sons (all of whom
were children, excepting Henry) — ever realized the actual reasons or
circumstances that led to his defense of Hanson and The Federal Re-
publican.

Mildred Lee Francis says: "Harry Lee felt that it was simply a matter
of course for a man to sacrifice himself and all that he had for his coun-
try; that it was just a part of his everyday life and was not to be men-

3Scharf, Vol. Ill, page 13: “Alexander Contee Hanson also received internal injuries at the
hands of the mob, which were a contributing cause of his premature death seven years later.
When he apparently recovered, his state endeavored to make amends to him. He was elected as
a Federalist to the 13th and 14th Congresses, serving from March 4, 1813, until his resignation
in 1816. Elected then to the United States Senate, he served from December 20, 1816, until his
death on his estate Belmont, near Elkridge, Howard Co., Maryland, April 23, 1819.”

4 Shippen Papers.

TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY 343

tioned. He never once thought of himself — only the duty that lay before
him, and he never referred to the word sacrifice or considered himself a
martyr. Simply he taught his sons that when duty came no matter how
disagreeable it was they must always face it and say nothing about it.
All the family thought, just as my father did — and he was only a boy
at the time — that General Lee went to Baltimore to the Federal paper
office on private business and that the visit was most unfortunate.”3

This singular lack of insight into the principles at stake in Baltimore
was not shared by the people of the surrounding country. General
Lingan’s mangled body, which had been secretly buried by a relative,
was taken from its obscure grave in September, 1812, and buried with
full military honors at a public funeral. George Washington Parke
Custis, in his Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, says
that citizens of Washington and part of the states of Virginia and
Maryland met to pay honor to the memory of this man who "fell a
faithful martyr to the liberty of his country.” So numerous were the
mourners that it was found necessary to substitute for the church
originally selected "a shady eminence in the neighborhood of the city,”
where beneath the oak trees the tent of Washington was suspended
over the coffin of this veteran soldier who had died in defense of the
very liberties for which he had fought in the Revolution. On the benches
in front of the platform sat Alexander Hanson "and surviving members
of the band who had gallantly defended the rights of freemen and the
liberty of the press.”6

As soon as he had sufficiently recovered from his injuries, Lee wrote a
Correct Account of the Conduct of the Baltimore Mob in order to "call
to the knowledge of our citizens generally, as much accurate information
respecting the hideous and diabolical struggle of the leaders of the
dominant party, as will contribute to guard well the public mind, against
any and every future attempt, to trample upon the rights of private
citizens, and to frustrate the first principles of our excellent Constitu-
tion. ...”

In this document Lee records his belief that the mob was "of govern-
mental origin and had its foundation in executive authority.” He states
that President Madison had knowledge of what was to happen in Balti-
more and that the proceedings of that day (the conspiracy to murder
young Alexander Hanson in cold blood) were "complete furtherances

“Statement by Mrs. Francis to the writer.
“Page 571.

344

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

of the views and wishes of the heads of that [executive] department.”
He denounces the base effort "to prostrate the principles of civil liberty,
and to render the laws subservient to the ambitious views and dastardly
operations of a factious party, destined by its earliest and ceaseless
struggles to make itself paramount to the laws of the land, and to ride
most triumphantly over the entire interest, principles and happiness of
the purest and greatest portion of our citizens.”7

Only a few of Harry Lee’s friends outside the group who suffered
with him in Baltimore ever sensed the fact that he had risked his life
for the principles and ideals he had cherished since he was a boy at
Princeton. His last stand for Liberty was the crowning achievement of
Harry Lee’s life. This has remained unrecognized for one hundred and
twenty-four years, although contemporary records show clearly and
definitely the motives of Hanson’s defenders. Minute details of the
Baltimore riot, together with descriptions of Lee’s injuries, have fre-
quently been published; but no one has pointed out that Lee was a
martyr to the cause of civil liberties.

7To judge from affidavits quoted, the Correct Account was written in the late summer of
1812. It was published “by a particular friend C. B.”, but not until July, 1814.

CHAPTER XVIII: THE END AT DUNGENESS

EE did not recover. Wracked with pain, he lay in his Alexandria
home throughout all the remaining months of 1812. The spring
^ of the following year found him still suffering and incapable of
further writing or work of any kind. His external wounds healed in
time, though they left him disfigured in face and partially blind. But
with medical science at so imperfect a stage, there was no means of
determining the character and extent of his internal injuries.

Nothing, however, could quench his courageous spirit. In a warmer
climate, he felt, he could recover from his injuries. Again the thought
of going to the West Indies occurred to him. He would go to the
Barbados, San Domingo, Porto Rico, New Providence, Nassau — he did
not know just where — but he would go to those pleasant islands so that
presently he could come back, sound and well again, to his children and
"their dearest mother,” and take up his writing once more.

The war with Great Britain put obstacles in the way of Lee’s de-
parture for a foreign port as great as those of the Embargo Act years
before. But this time, when he applied to the President, Madison lis-
tened and gave his instant cooperation. Had he perhaps heard rumor of
The Correct Account of the Baltimore Mob still in manuscript? Harry
Lee refers to Madison’s response in the journal he began after his
arrival in the Barbados:

1813

My grievous wound received from the mob of Baltimore menacing me with
a continuance of disease and [illegible] with the permission of the president
I applied to Admiral Warren for leave to go to the W. Indies. Having early
communicated my intention to P. B. R. for whom I had long entertained a
warm regard and to whom I have ever done every good in my power, he prom-
ised on certain offered conditions to accompany and to aid me in every way in
his power. . . .

This is Lee’s only reference to his departure from the United States.
The exact date, place, and circumstances are not known, and "P. B. R.”
is still only a monogram.

Ann Lee’s letter of September twentieth of that year, written from
Long Branch, New Jersey, to Zaccheus Collins in Philadelphia, gives a
clue. This may indicate that she went north with her husband in the
latter part of June and saw him aboard the ship bound for the West
Indies — on the voyage from which he was never to return.

Her letter to the father of her old friend Elizabeth Collins Lee, is
impersonal and formal:

[345]

346 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Long Branch September 20th 1813

Dear Sir,

I am greatly indebted to you for your attention respecting my Carriage: and
must beg your forgiveness for adding to the trouble already occasioned you, by
requesting you to be so good as to urge Mr- Ogle to finish the Carriage by the
3d- of October — On that day, I hope to be in Philadelphia, and on the 5th- ex-
pect to proceed on my journey to Alexandria.

I shall be much disappointed at not finding it completed, as it will not be in
my power to remain in Philadelphia longer than a day. May I also ask the
favour of you Sir, to remind Mr- Ogle, that there was a trunk, and a cover of
oil cloth, directed for the Carriage.

Wish Miss Collins every felicity and offering her my affectionate regard, I
beg you Sir, to be assured of the high esteem and respect of

Ann H. Lee.

Mr- Collins

Addressed: Zacheus Collins Esqire
Philadelphia

Endorsed: Mrs- Gen1- Lee. Sept. 20, 1813 from Long Branch1

Before the last of September Ann was back in their cozy little house
in Alexandria, and she received word that her husband had reached his
destination:

Barbadoes Aug. 13th 13

I wrote to you by the Cartel which sailed 2 or 3 days ago. & sent sundry little
matters to you. Mr & Mrr Higginbotham go tomorrow I hear & altho I am
confined — shall endeavor to send the other matters before left, viz a ring for
keys enclosed — a bermuda pearl (curiosity only) enclosed — 5 or 6 doz best
brandy; 6 or 7 best madeira — a bag of Coffee, d.z ( ?) cocoa nut & 1 or 2 lbs of
brown sugar — a pair of the best sort of spectacles which I hope you may live
long to use.

For our poor children this hope is more & more ardent, as I more & more
am convinced they will soon loose their father. I pray always for you & them &
have much to write to you about yr house I wish to purchase but must defer it.2

Your H: L

[Addressed:]

Mrr A H Lee

Fav.d by Alexandria

M« Higginbotham [U] S —

111 as Harry Lee was, his first thought upon stepping ashore, as this
letter shows, was of his wife and children. The spectacles he sent to
Ann could scarcely have been of much use to her! But what treasures
for the children were the pearl and the cocoanut! And how delicious
the West Indies brown sugar must have tasted!

1Richard Bland Lee Papers, 1700-1825, Library of Congress.

"Original letter from H. Lee to Mrs. A. H. Lee, Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

THE END AT DUNGENESS

347

Perhaps Ann’s heart lost a beat when she read the last paragraph of
her husband’s letter. His farewell gift to her she kept always. It was a
gold and black-enameled brooch containing a lock of his hair." From
that time, she wore it every day, even at the hour of her death.

In another letter her husband seems to have regained something of
his former optimism, for he says: "I entertain at length some reason to
beleive that the sea and this clime will releive me completely from my
mob injurys.” But a few weeks after his arrival he begins to think of
returning home: "I propose to sail after the equinox for Gaudaloupe,
there spend a few weeks, then go to the Havannah where stay till I
can get a vessel to Charlestown. This circuit I adopt because the Chesa-
peake will remain blockaded as long as this cursed war continues, & of
course I could not enter it, unless Sir John Warren should give me a
new proof of his goodness which I am unwilling in my changed &
changing Condition to solicit: and I think he would not be willing to
grant it a second time. ...”

In a letter to Carter of August 15, he feels certain he can soon be with
his family:

Hoping & beleiving that my very dear son not only is to his mother a help &
comfort, but that he sets an example to his brothers & sisters & that he improves
himself in literature, I sent him a gun by the last ship, & now send to him some
flints of the best kind, some powder & shot & a flask & shot pouch: If God
Almighty should bless my endeavors to recover my health I shall return directly
afterwards to my family, & while I shall look around on all with inexpressible
delight, I shall especially mark my eldest boy, not only because he is first in
the order of nature, but because he has been from the hour of his birth un-
changeably my delight.

You must give to your brother Henry such of the agats as are small, & suit
pistols — The rest give to your Mamma to put away for your use — they ought to
last you, until you reach manhood. Kiss your dear & afflicted sister Anne & be
to her a good kind & loving brother.

Pity & comfort her in her deep affliction for my sake.

Oh that she had come with me. Tell Smith I shall bring him, a gun with me
with the same articles I now send him — Bid him to recollect how much I love
him & to be sure to grow up the good & useful boy I have always predicted.
Hug my dear Robert for me & kiss little Mildred to whom I sent a present of
letters among some things for your mother & to whom I now send a little pearl
in my letter to her mamma. God bless you & protect you my dear Carter with
all my family.

Your father

H: Lee

“Statement to author by Ann Lee's great granddaughter, Mrs. Ellin Lee Rhea, who inherited
this heirloom.

348

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Barbadoes
Aug. 13

Look in the dictionary for the word "agat” & then you will know its meaning.
So always do whenever you meet with a word, you do not understand.

C. C. Lee

[Written on next leaf in handwriting of Charles Carter Lee:]

Copy of Post-script to the enclosed letter Now my dear boy use yourself to
system & order — Put your gun always in the same place — keep her clean, never
put her up with a charge in her.

Put your powder, ball, flints, &c. all in their respective places — Waste
nothing, but make every thing last as long as possible.4

[On the verso of this second sheet is written in Charles Carter Lee’s hand-
writing:]

Copy of P. S. & Direction of a letter from my father dated Augt 17th
Barbadoes

Favoured by
M.rs Higginbothom
with a small pencil.

Master

Charles Carter Lee

Alexandria
U. States

An interesting record of these gifts to the family appears in a long
lost journal kept by Harry Lee during his years in the West Indies. It is
a plain, leather-bound blank book, four and a half inches by six and a
half in size. The paper is the durable rag linen typical of the late eight-
eenth century. Although slight in bulk and filled with seemingly
extraneous matter, the journal is one of the most revealing of the Lee
documents. It was discovered and preserved by Dr. William Moseley
Brown of Clarendon, Virginia, its present owner. Found originally at
Dungeness, Cumberland Island, Georgia, in 1818, it was sent in 1866
to Light-Horse Harry Lee’s son, Robert E. Lee, in Lexington after he
had accepted the presidency of Washington College. Shortly after his
death October 12, 1870, the document disappeared from his collection
of family letters and papers and was not found until recently.5

The document is not a journal or diary in the customary sense. Lee
himself explains its contents in a single line on the page inside the book
cover: "Athenaeus — an Egyptian philosopher — his Deipnosophisti.”

4Copy of letter from H. Lee to Charles Carter Lee, August IS, 1813, from original. Robert
E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

cThis is the first public announcement of the interesting discovery and the first publication of
excerpts from the journal. Permission for their use exclusively in these pages has been gener-
ously given the author by Dr. Brown.

THE END AT DUNGENESS

349

According to Dr. Harold W. Miller of the Library of Congress: "The
word 'deipnosophisti’ is derived literally from two Greek words mean-
ing dinner and those who are learned. The compounded word means,
therefore, 'expert at dining’; its application as the title of the literary-
work of Athenaeus is extended to embrace the variety of topics of con-
versation, literary, moral, aesthetic, which arise ordinarily in the dinner
conversation, and has come to mean, semantically, 'journal’ or 'diary.’ ”

Here, accordingly, is Lee’s own deipnosophisti: a few of his personal
observations about people, life, events, philosophers, and historians,
their theories and maxims, the memoranda of goods and articles sent
his family, some brief excerpts from the classics, evidently from mem-
ory, and written by Lee in Latin, Spanish, French, and English. Lee’s
reference to Athenaeus as "an Egyptian,” arises, Dr. Miller concludes,
from the fact that this Greek philosopher traveled extensively in Egypt
and in his own works used many quotations from those he termed "the
Egyptian Wise Men.”

Aside from its scholarly aspects, Lee’s journal is, in a sense, his last
will and testament. For he records the names of strangers who opened
their doors to him, an ill and impoverished wanderer, in deep distress
of mind and body, who gave him food and shelter, medical assistance,
books, and courtesy of the heart. He records the names of these kind
English men and women in such a manner that it is a charge to his fam-
ily and his friends to render thanks in his name:

I owe a life of gratitude to Sir George Beckwith, John Trotman, Thos. Ap-
plewhaite, and family, including his grandson Booth, John F. Alleyne, W.
Osley, Pierpont Law, Giles Hollingsworth, Mrs. Paul, Mrs. Eddy. See my letr.
to Oxley.

Also much to John Beckler, attor. gen., Mr. Coithurst, King’s advocate, Mr.
George Hallam, Collector, Mr. and Mrs. Bullock, Judge Joshua Getting, Gen.
Williams, Mr. Goring, Gov. ( ?) Graithwaite, Mr. Best, & Mr. Grersat.

The volume contains a record of expenditures, the only one Lee was
known to keep. The items mentioned in his letters of 1813 to his family,
which are quoted in these pages are thus further confirmed and given in
greater detail:

Aug. 6th, ’13 — Articles sent by the cartel for my family to be delivered to my
son H. L. in Washington: 7 gowns, pins, needles, thread, silk, gloves, cambric,
&c. amounting to DS. 47.50. — 4 pieces irish linen, 9 yards blue cloth — 1 piece
dimity, 7 yards marseilles white, ditto striped, 12 vest patterns. — a stuffed fish
taken at sea on our voyage called [illegible] and the back bone of a small shark
also taken, with a pearl found at Bermuda, — cinders from Mt. Aetna — a keg of
phil and 2 jars tamarind — a copper kettle for washing, a fish trap — a gun

350

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

for C.C.L., a box of shells for A.H.L., an indian war club, S Wilberforce

on religion. — Since sent by Mr. Higginbotham powder horn, shot bag, agats,
powder and shot for my dear son C.C.L., 5 doz. old spirits — bag of coffee, bag
of bacon. . . .

By the brig Mahoney, Capt. Wm. Sullivan, Boston, some trifles for Mrs. Lee.
— By Captain Graham, some of like sort. — By Mr. Dider also like things.- — -
Every vessel from this port arrived in U. S.

Jn. 15— By Dieder, the world and its quarters, well secured in Osnabigs[r]
supercargo, 2 boxes of wine, 1 flour bb. with a loaf sugar, a cheese, a book for
Anne two sermons, coffee, and ginger & one or two small boxes with liquors—
all to Charles Burrel [ ?], Baltimore, expected to be forwarded thro’ Mr.
Gadsby.

His family was constantly in his thought. He wrote Ann:

My heart never turns from you a moment, & all dear to it pass hourly in re-
view of my minds eye. ... So rare and precious are your opportunitys. . . .
Again he said:

Some few conveniences were sent to you & by the only two opportunitys
which have offered since my arrival. I hope they have or will safely reach you.
Some articles as mentioned in some of my letters remain here & I apprehend
will long remain for want of safe conveyance, no more Cartels which afford
the best conveyance are likely to be wanted, as our intercourse by sea seems
nearly excluded & such intercourse only give prisoners to the enemy of which
all here have been sent to America. I have never recd- a letter from you or any
of my friends & I now do not expect to hear from home.

Another time, overcome with pain and loneliness, and yearning for
his wife and children, he contemplated the hourly approach of death,
and wrote his wife:

. . . altho surrounded as I am by a most urband & hospitable Gentry, who
lavish their kind attentions on me, my Anne & my Carter cheifly engage my
thoughts.

The hand of the first and the education of the last furnish employment to
them, oh that I had brought my daughter with me in spite of herself. It was a
fathers duty & I shall never cease reproaching myself with the omission unless
I find her well. The last I commit to the hands which now protect him as it
may not be my fortune ever to see him even should my present hopes of
restored soundness be realized — My age points to the repose of the grave &
the interjacent sea often stops the meeting of friends.

Then I consign Carter to Henry who thanks to almighty God tenderly &
sincerely loves his brothers & sisters — I commend Carter particularly to him
not only because he is the first in the order of nature which gives to his example
operating weight with his brothers, but because he has a just generous open
& noble mind. If he is rightly assisted & guided in his education he will benefit
Smith & Robert greatly while young by leading them the right course, & here-
after advance them in their ascent to knowledge when climbing up its ruggy

Major General Henry Lee (Light-Horse Harry): from the original portrait by Gilbert
Stuart, now in the possession of Airs. Mildred Lee Francis, Annapolis, Alaryland.

352

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

road. I mean by knowledge that which makes a man wise & useful — Set this
object plainly and clearly before my dear boys eyes & urge him by a fathers
love enforced by a brothers love & eloquence to pursue it with unrelaxed zeal
& vigor. Tell him it is sure to make its possessor good & great. To be the
last he must be the first — a happy necessity, as the first is most desireable. . . .

Lee’s only surviving description of Ann, aside from the few brief
references in his letters to Carter, is contained in the time-stained pages
of his journal. His feeling for his wife, expressed in a quotation from
Pope, reveals his admiration for her courage:

So unaffected, so composed a mind,

So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined,

Heaven as its purest gold, by tortures try’d.

On the same page Lee quotes two more lines from Pope:

Calmly he looked on either life & here
Saw nothing to regret, & there to fear.

And of these two verses he says: "I have always thought the first ap-
plied to my wife & the last to me.”

The discovery of Lee’s letters of 1813 to his family, his journal, and
Ann’s five letters, together with the references to Lee in the Shippen
Papers and in Carter Lee’s reminiscences — all this new material should
change profoundly the long-accepted view of the character of Light-
Horse Harry Lee.

Notwithstanding his illness, Lee determined to give Carter a definite
course of instruction. This is evident from other excerpts from his letter
to Ann of September 3, 1813:

I shall continue to write for my Carters good hoping that you will not only
make him read my letters every week but that you will make him copy them in
a quire of paper covered & stitched as a book. This I request as the darling
child not only was dear to me from birth, but has tenderly loved me from
the dawn of reason if I do not deceive myself. Consequently I infer that he
will heed my opinions & thus that I shall promote his good.

Through Carter, his father frequently expressed his desire of reach-
ing Smith and Robert. In outlining to his wife the studies he prescribed
for their fifteen-year-old son, he said:

In my selection for his mental improvement I have put down only some few
books & those I most approve. When he is fit to search into the sciences — -
mathematics especially Euclid — natural Philosophy theoretic & experimental —
Locks whole work — Washingtons official letters wherein the just good hon-
orable man is plainly to be seen even by a young reader — But it is useless for
me to advise or you to exhort unless you can entice his young mind to the love
of diligent study. . . .

THE END AT DUNGENESS

353

The mind claims rightly the first attention, for knowledge leads to virtue
the distinctive the good & the end of man. But how can I so well express the
supremacy of virtue as by recurring to the most learned of the romans with
Whom I have just recommended my sons intimate acquaintance. . . . He ought
every day to give two hours to English & no books can more inspire him with
love of literature than Popes Homer & Drydens tales or fables — . . . [These]
are enought for two years to come & therefore ought to be read over & over.
I do not mention Greek tho I trust the time will come when he will be master
of both languages. . . .

Dancing fencing swimming, riding shooting & pugilistical adroitness are all
in their place worthy of due attention. The first two are easily acquired & serve
to give the body its best posture which from habit become fixt — pleases the
fair sex, to please whom is among our secondary dutys & teaches us to defend
ourselves with the sword, when unavoidable — A good boy will remember that
he is to draw his sword when a man, but in self defence & always to return it
to the scabbard when he has defenced himself.

At this point Harry Lee addresses Carter in the same letter:

Swimming enables you to conserve life sometimes & therefore becomes in
some degree a duty. Riding as well as boxing by rule gives grace to the body,
are agreable exercises, encrease agility & add manliness to the contour or
looks. In the acquirement of these qualifications, let him never forget that they
go to aid the body only & therefore must not engross the mind or dissipate
time, the most pretious part of a youths property. To be genteel in manner &
deportment is very becoming & ought to be sought diligently tho’ not prized
avidly.

In another paragraph he admonishes Henry: "I pray you my dear
Henry opposed as is unhappily your own example, to fix him in the habit
of rising early & going to bed early. ...”

Again he says to Henry :

In no way can you better ensure success than by encouraging your brother
to read with thorough understanding Virgil Sallust Terence & Cicero espe-
cially his tracts de amititia de senectute de officiis — Indeed, I wish he would
be master of every idea & even words in these sublime & instructive pages. Cicero
all over is most improving to a young man. But unless the latin language is
critically taught by his preceptor he never can perceive the beautys of the
authors recommended & therefore will never taste that delight they afford
which ensures edification & bestows with it a new incentive to far[th]er
study. . . .

To Ann he writes: "The subject of this letr is so near to my heart that
I shall never tire of it — Yet I must stop, for tho I am better than I have
ever been since I was in Baltimore, still I am unfit for much exertion.

y y

Lee remained in the Barbados until January, 1814, when he sailed for
Porto Rico. The following summer he endeavored to get a passport to

354

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

return to the United States but was prevented by the British blockade
of the coast. In 1815 he was at San Pedro. No record of the family in
Alexandria is available from the autumn of 1813 to the summer of 1816.
Letters of that period are undoubtedly extant but have not yet been
found. Meanwhile, through his father’s letters, his mother’s diligent
supervision, and possibly through his school or a private tutor, Carter
was prepared to enter Harvard College, "the seminary of my choice,”
his father says. Lee’s own college, Princeton, had not yet fully revived
from the blows it suffered during the Revolution.

At this time a grave financial struggle was again confronting Ann
Lee. The trust fund established by her father, exclusively for her use
and for her children, consisted principally of stock in the Bank of Vir-
ginia. The dividends were to comprise her income, the principal to be
divided among her children after her death. Besides this stock there
was some property — a few houses and farms of no large monetary value
— some of which one of her sisters had left her. At first the bank stock
yielded approximately $1,210.00 annually. But in 1816 this income was
suddenly reduced one half. This reduction is explained in Ann’s unpub-
lished letter to Carter, written from Alexandria, May 8, 1816:

My dear Carter,

I enclose you $100 which you wrote for; and hope they will arrive in time to
discharge your quarter bill when it becomes due — Mr- McKenna has been so
good as to furnish a treasury note, consequently the exchange will be triffling. I
wrote you a long letter by Mr- Dwight, which must have reached you before
this — -

In addition to what I then said to you my dear, on the necessity of observing
a strict econemy in your pecuniary concerns, I must now inform you, that it is
believed, that the Virginia Bank will not divide the next dividend day; that is,
the, stockholders will receive no interest on their stock — This arrangement is
occasioned, by the Virginia legislature having passed a law, obliging the Bank
to pay specia, which has so distressed her, that her stock has fallen below par —
You know my dear Carter that my principal resource is derived from that par-
ticular Bank, which has hitherto yielded me $1210 annually, which is more
than half my income — I will make no comments on the subject, but leave it to
your own judgement to decide, whether such a diminuition of income, will not
compel us to lessen our expenses in a proportionate degree — I would strenu-
ously advise you not to subscribe to balls, to join in parties, or incur any un-
necessary expense, for at least a year to come, till we see what will be the issue
of the present state of things in this part of the world for I do assure you, it
is agreed by one and all, that there never was a period, when it was so difficult
to procure money, and never was there such a demand for it, from the ex-
horbitant prices, put upon every article of life — It will be less wounding to
your feelings my dear Carter, to withhold your name from a subscription, or to

THE END AT DUNGENESS

355

renounce an expensive amusement, than to be recalled from College before
your education is completed, because your Mothers finances will not admit of
your remaining longer; which must necessarily be the case, if you expend
more than a certain sum — You have never written me exactly an account of
your whole expenses, I mean such expenses as are unavoidable — Make a faith-
ful statement of every necessary expense separately, such as College bills, board,
room rent, & furniture, fuel, washing, etc. &c, — I hope you will want no clothes
now, but pantaloons — I received a letter from your Papa lately, and a large
packet for Henry — It was dated February 22d — Port au Prince — He speaks of
his health as being very bad, but seems to expect restoration from the salubrity
of the climate. I fear Ann will not so far conquer her indolent habit, & dislike
of writing as to afford you the intelligence you have solicited from her — There-
fore will give you a hasty account of your young friends — Phill courted Mary
Braxton the day he went to Arlington, with Edward, before you left home — He
did not receive a decisive answer, but has not I believe renewed the subject —
He is living at Shirley — Lucy Randolph is to be married next tuesday to D.r
Mason — Cornelia Turbeville has rejected Edmond Brook — M.r Swann’s family
are in deep mourning for the death of good M.rs Selden — All your other ac-
quaintances go on as usual. — I sent to inquire of Mr- Hume, where you must
direct to him; his answer was, he would write & inform you; if he has not, you
had better write, & direct to him in Alexandria.

I am pleased with your letter to Mr- Callett— Never forget to be grateful to
him, and to manifest it through life — You write much more correctly than you
did, but are still careless — In directing your letter to M.r Callett, you omited
to put, Mr-> or Esquire — It was a triffling omission, but had better been attended
to — I wish you to write to M.r McKenna — In offering your regards to your
friends, in your letters to me, you have neglected to mention Mr- Holbrook,
repair the omission in your next; and remember sometimes, good William Page,
who always brings from the office your letters — I wish you also to write to your
Uncle Fitzhug[h] [torn] the letter to Alexandria, & to my care — Mildred is
much [indis-] [torn] posed with a bad cough, and has been in my room all day,
annoying me not a little, while writing to you— She desires I will tell you, she
went to Church on Sunday last, that M.r Norris preached a lovely sermon, but
that Mr- Collany kept such a talking & singing, she could not tell you much
about it, tho’ she remembers, that M.r Norris said, "we do that which we ou^ht
not to do, and leave undone that which we ought to do” — I expect to live in M.r
Charles Lee’s house, & only wait M.rs Alexander’s removal from it, to take pos-
session: which she says will be next week— Your Sisters & Brothers express
great affection for you, and anxiety to see you — I am afraid my health is getting
very bad again, as I have been sick for a fortnight with my old complaints.
God! bless you my dear child, forget not when our final separation takes place,
to cherish my counsels.6

Your most affectionate

Mother

Ann H. Lee.

"Original letter from Ann H. Lee to Charles Carter Lee. Robert E. Lee Memorial Founda-
tion, Inc.

356

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Acknowledge the receipt of this, & the enclosed Our love to dear Shirley.
[Addressed:]

M.r Charles Carter Lee 50

Harvard College
Cambridge, near

Massachusetts. Boston.

Ann’s next letter to Carter, also written from Alexandria, is dated
July 17, 1816:

My dear Carter,

I received your letter, acknowledging mine, enclosing money — I shall not be
at home when your bills will next become due, but if you will write to M.r
McKenna, he will furnish money to discharge them — You will do well to write
for no more, than is absolutely necessary, and to demand as little as possible,
for what is called pocket money — It is now ascertained beyond a doubt, that all
my expenses must be diminished — I dare say you know enough of my pecuniary
matters, to know, that my principal resource was derived from the Bank of
Virginia — That Bank has declared a dividend, which reduces the money I
draw from it, to one half — Previous to the war, the dividend was $1440 annu-
ally; since that period, $1210 — It is now $605 — [twelve indecipherable words
crossed out] I am lessening my expenses in every way — Have sent off two of the
servants, Sebrey & William, & when I leave home, shall hire out Louis — I
fear the next sacrifice must be the horses — We have very seldom more than one
dish on the table, of meat, to the great discomfort of my young Ladies &
Gentlemen, whom you know have various tastes — It requires a length of time
every night, to determine what shall be brought next morning from market — As
there is to be but one dish, all cannot be pleased: Ann prefers fowls, but they are
so high, that they are sparingly delt in; and if brought to table, scarcely, a back,
falls to Smith & Robert’s share, so that they rather not be tantalized with the
sight of them; and generally urge the purchase of veal; while Mildred is as
solicitous, that whortleberries or cherries should compose our dinner.

In consequence of the increased infirmity of the old greys, I have been forced
to part with them, for only $70, and have purchased a pair of blacks — We com-
menced our journey upwards this day week; but after getting six miles above
Ravensworth, the blacks refused to go farther and I decided on coming home,
& endeavouring to sell them — They are good horses, but not broken well, &
Nat is an unskilful driver — So here we are, at a loss to say when we shall again
set out — I have been much [word crossed out] indisposed since my return, and
still continue so. The season is too far advanced for me to be in the lower
Country, but here I must wait till I can sell the horses; as I cannot raise money
in any other way, to buy another pair. — My dear Carter, I cannot have the
satisfaction of permitting you to come home this vacation — You must wait
till better times — I shall be obliged to trespass farther on the fund laid up for
your College expenses, to defray my own; & it is now considerably reduced —
It is impossible for me to collect the hire of negroes, such is the distress for
money in this country; and the dividends will be less in these Banks too, at

THE END AT DUNGENESS

357

the next division.- — Every article of life is higher than was ever known; and the
prospect for the next year most gloomy, from the uncommon coldness of the
weather, which is destroying the crops — Fires are as necessary, as they are early
in the spring, and have been so, with the exception of a few weeks the whole
season. These money matters, as you say, occupy the greater proportion of my
letters: but in future I shall dwell less on the subject; as I am sure I have said
enough, to convince you of the great necessity of your being strictly economical
if you wish to remain at College; for one thing is now certain, that I, and my
family must greatly restrict ourselves — We have no alternative — We cannot
borrow money, because we cannot repay it; the interest of our mon[e]y being
only sufficient for each years expenditure [paper torn] live my dear in the same
house, & I presume are in[timately ?] [paper torn] associated, with two young
Gentlemen much richer than yourself, and I fear, are excited by false shame to
enter into the same expenses that they do — Carter, my dear Son, acquire that
noble independence of spirit, which would cause you to blush at incurring an
expense, you could not in justice to your family afford — I should not hesitate in
your situation, if asked to join my companions in any amusements which would
add to my expenses, to tell them, that I found it honorable to retrench my ex-
penses, at least for a [indecipherable word crossed out] time, inasmuch, as my
fortune consisted in Bank stock, and the injury the Banks had sustained, from
the interruption of commerce, & from being forced to resume specie payments
sooner than they were prepared to do, had obliged them to curtail the divi-
dends, one half, — If your friends are worthy your regard, they will applaud
your determination. You must direct to me at Fanquier Court Flouse.

All your friends enquire after you with much interest — They say they have
formed high hopes of your character — Disappoint them not I entreat you — Fet
your ambition be to realize their expectations.

My dear Carter, I am at times, very unhappy lest you should become a socin-
ion — If you should, I shall have aided in making you so: as I permited you
to go to a College, where the principles of that sect were disseminated — Oh!
pray fervently for faith in Jesus Christ. He is the only rock of your salvation,
and the only security for your resurrection from the grave!7

Farewell my dear Child

[Addressed:] Ann H. Fee.

Mr. Charles Carter Lee PAID
Harvard College
Cambridge
near Boston
Massachusetts.

[Endorsed:]

Mrs Ann H Lee

[Postmarked:]

Alex

jul

’Original letter, Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

358 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

These lean days in Alexandria were broken for Smith and Robert
by long visits to Stratford and to Shirley. For Henry had reopened
Stratford. In the early spring of 1813, a few months before his father
went to the West Indies, Henry had gone into the army. The appoint-
ment of Major in the 36th Infantry was given him by President Madi-
son. After being mustered out, he lived for a short time in Washington.
But before 1816 he returned to Stratford, where he kept open house
for his young stepbrothers as well as for his bachelor friends, and re-
entered local politics.

In her efforts to economize Ann moved from the house on Cameron
Street to even smaller quarters, a house on Washington Street belonging
to the Christ Church property (later used as the rectory). Smith was
preparing for a career in the navy and thought of Robert’s going into
the army was beginning to take shape.

That Carter, in Cambridge, paid heed to his parents’ advice seems
evident from the fact that he remained at Harvard and graduated sec-
ond in his class in 1819-

Lee’s search for health was unavailing. From Port-au-Prince, San
Domingo, he sailed for New Providence, stopping off at Turk’s Island.
As his letters to Carter show, he went to Caicos, and on to Nassau. The
family in Alexandria also received news of his wanderings in a letter
written December 7, 1816, by one Vincent Gray, from Havana. Gray
wrote of General Lee’s being "in tolerable good health” and having
sailed from Nassau for the Windward Islands; said he had informed
Richard Bland Lee and begged him to give the notice to Mrs. Lee. "If
I can induce him to return to the U. States,” concludes Mr. Gray, "it will
afford me infinite pleasure. ...”

But Lee continued to nurse the delusion that his Spanish physician
could cure him of his injuries and, with the climate, bring about his
complete restoration to health. He was unable to continue the biogra-
phies he had planned. But, no matter how ill he became, he continued
his letters of instruction and advice to Carter. Destitute and seldom out
of pain, he strove to instill into his sons what he felt were the true
values of philosophy, education, and life. He fulfilled his responsibili-
ties as a father by every means within his power. No complete library
was accessible to him, yet he never failed to include in his letters, un-
doubtedly from memory, extensive quotations from the chief figures of
Greek and Roman civilization.

THE END AT DUNGENESS

359

Owing to the blockade and the irregularity of mail transportation, as
well as the apparent failure of his family to write him frequently, Lee
did not receive many letters from them. One letter from Carter, follow-
ing him from place to place, was a year in reaching him. His heart
yearned for news of home. Ann was ill much of the time. She made
twelve hundred dollars a year provide for the children and keep Carter
in college. Major Henry was on the Canadian frontier with his regi-
ment, and later engrossed in the social activities of Washington and
Richmond. It is easy to see why so few letters from his family reached
Lee.

Although a Major General in the United States Army, he received no
salary. Nor did he have a pension for his former services. Over and
again had he applied for and obtained pensions for his soldiers of the
Legion, but never for himself. Sick and penniless, he never complained
to his family that in his illness he was entirely dependent upon the hos-
pitality of strangers.

He remained at Nassau throughout 1817 and through January and
part of February of the following year. During this period he continued
his "letters of love and wisdom,’’ as Robert terms them, to Carter. The
last words received by Carter from his father were written on the ninth
of February, 1818:

I send this letter to Mr. Goddard, and with it two books for you, worthy of
your best attention; one of them the inimitable Cervantes. At length I get off.
The ship Betsey is in harbor, taking in her cargo, and is destined to some
Southern port; which, not yet decided. In her, I go; and shall be landed, I
dare say, as soon as you get this letter. I fear you will be puzzled to read it,
but it cannot be altered by one afflicted as I am daily.

God bless my dear Carter.

Before Lee could land at Savannah and hasten home overland, as he
planned, he was taken critically ill, and asked to be carried ashore as the
schooner approached Cumberland Island, oft the coast of Georgia. On
the south end of the island stood Dungeness, the home of General
Nathanael Greene’s family, a large, imposing mansion set in groves of
orange trees, olives, palmettos and live oaks. Lee’s heart was full of
affectionate memories of his old commander, and he knew he would
receive from Greene’s children a similar response.

The account of Lee’s coming to Dungeness and the facts about his
last days there were told by General Greene’s grandson, Philip M.
Nightingale, to Charles C. Jones, Jr., who gives the record:

Early in February, 1818, about four o’clock in the afternoon, a grandson of
General Greene — a lad some fifteen years old, who was amusing himself with

360

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

boyish sports about the ample grounds — observed a schooner nearing the
Dungeness landing. Just before reaching the wharf the schooner came to
anchor and a boat was lowered. A feeble old man was assisted into the boat
by the captain and mate, who took their seats beside him, and the three were
rowed ashore by two sailors. The youth had intermediately gone to the landing
where he waited to ascertain the object of the visit and to welcome the guest.
General Lee was lifted from the boat by the sailors, who, making a chair with
their hands and arms, bore him to the shore. He was pale, emaciated, very
weak and evidently suffering much pain. There was that about his appearance
which assured the observer not only of his illness but also of his poverty. He
was plainly, almost scantily attired. The sailors placed upon the wharf an old
hair-trunk in a dilapidated condition, and a cask of Madeira wine. General
Lee brought no other baggage with him. Beckoning the youth to him, he
inquired who he was. Learning that Mrs. Shaw [the daughter of General
Greene] was at home, and that he was the grandson of General Greene, he
[Lee] threw his arms around him, embracing him with marked emotion. . . .
He then bade him go to the house and say to his aunt, Mrs. Shaw, that General
Lee was at the wharf and wished the carriage to be sent for him. "Tell her,”
he added, "I am come purposely to die in the house and in the arms of the
daughter of my old friend and compatriot.” . . .

When they arrived at the house, General Lee was so weak that he had to be
assisted both in getting out of the carriage and in ascending the steps. Having
received a most cordial welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Shaw, he excused himself
at once and retired to his room. Such was his feebleness that he kept his room,
generally leaving it but once a day, and then only for a little while that he
might take a short walk in the garden. Upon these occasions he always sent for
young Nightingale to accompany him. Leaning upon the grandson of his
honored commander, — usually with his arm around his neck, — he would
slowly and with difficulty descend the steps and then, turning into the garden,
walk in an avenue which ran through a grove of orange trees. Soon fatigued,
he would return to the house and again seek repose in his room. Even in these
short walks he was able to indulge only for a week or ten days after his arrival.
On but a few occasions was he strong enough to dine with the family, — his
meals, at his own request, being served in his room. His feebleness becoming
daily more apparent and oppressive, he was soon entirely unable to leave his
room. . . .8

There were moments, Philip Nightingale told Mr. Jones, when Lee
spoke with deep feeling of the beauty of the scene from his windows,
the sea, the rich verdure of the island, and the melodious notes of bird-
song at dawn. On the one side of Dungeness, bordering the quiet, land-
locked waters between the island and the mainland, were the marshes
of Glynn. On the other side, the Atlantic breakers rolled upon the
white beach of the island, and at high tide would toss spray upon the

sCharles C. Jones, Jr., Reminiscences of the Last Days. Death, and Burial of Genera! Henry
Lee. Joel Munsell. Albany, New York, 1870. pages 18-20, 23-24.

The grave at D Hugeness.

362

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

palmettos and the long, gray Spanish moss swaying from the live oaks.

Draughts of the water, perhaps medicinal, brought to Lee from a
spring close to the mansion may have alleviated his sufferings. This
spring was later named the well of "Henricus Lee.” It was enclosed
with masonry and preserved, when another house replaced the first
Dungeness mansion and is the one relic of Lee that is pointed out on
the island today.

Young Nightingale spoke of the incident of "Mom Sarah,” his aunt’s
favorite maid, and "the esteemed and privileged family servant” of
Dungeness who was selected to wait on General Lee when all other ser-
vants failed to satisfy him. When "Mom Sarah” first entered his room,
General Lee, suffering acutely at the moment, hurled his boot at her
head and ordered her out:

Entirely unused to such treatment, without saying a word she deliberately
picked up the boot and threw it back. The effect produced by this strange and
unexpected retort was marked and instantaneous. The features of the stern
warrior relaxed. In the midst of his pain and anger a smile passed over his
countenance, and from that moment until the day of his death he would permit
no one except 'Mom Sarah” to do him special service.9

At this time, shortly before the ceding of Florida to the United States,
the army and navy were massed in and off southeast Georgia. They were
to stand by until the Treaty was signed, but their immediate object was
to dispossess the Spanish regiment, long entrenched on Amelia Island,
and fly the American flag over Fernandina. They were also instructed
to preserve the United States’ rights of commerce on the sea, and, on
land, to protect citizens from depredations of the Seminole Indians.

The land forces were in command of Colonel James Bankhead. A
squadron of the American fleet, with Commodore John D. Henley in
command, was anchored in Cumberland Sound at the mouth of St.
Mary’s River. The flagship was the United States frigate John Adams.
(How reminiscent of friendship was that name in the history of the
Lees!)

Upon the arrival of General Lee at Dungeness, Commodore Henley
and Colonel Bankhead called upon him to pay their respects, and to
offer every courtesy and aid in their personal power and in that of the
service. Two surgeons from the fleet were immediately assigned to at-
tend General Lee. Arrangements were also made for other officers, two
at a time, one from the army and one from the navy, to alternate each

9Charles C. Jones, Jr., Reminiscences of the Last Days, Death, and Burial of General Henry
Lee, page 31.

THE END AT DUNGENESS

363

night in caring for him. The members of the family at Dungeness did all
they could to ease the suffering of the dying man:

When it became too great an effort for (General Lee) to leave his room, and
he realized the fact that his life was fast ebbing away, he became at times very
depressed and irritable. The wound which he had received in Baltimore caused
him almost incessant suffering. It seriously affected his bladder. When the
paroxysms of extreme agony were upon him, and they recurred at short inter-
vals, his exhibitions of commingled rage and anguish were often terrible. . . .

At such times his groans would fill the house and wring the hearts of those
who watched by his side, anxious, but unable to render him that alleviation
which his vast sufferings loudly demanded. Many important remedies which
modern ingenuity and professional skill have contrived were then unknown to
the surgeon; and the patient languished amid physical tortures which later
medical aid could have materially mitigated. . . .

February passed and the first weeks of March and Lee was still suf-
fering. Fie died on Wednesday, March twenty-fifth.

i 1 i 1

The log book of the United States frigate John Adams records that on
Thursday, March 26, 1818, "the Prometheus took the guard, landed
the Marines on Cumberland Island, fired minute guns during the
Funeral procession of the (late) General Lee. ...”

All the last offices and arrangements for the funeral of General Lee
were directed by Commodore Henley. The flags on every ship in Cum-
berland Sound were dropped to half-mast. Two sheathed swords were
crossed upon the coffin. The army and navy officers, who had become
Lee’s closest friends, acted as pallbearers. To the military escort of
marines from the flagship was added a company of infantry from Fer-
nandina. The army band marched with them, beating muffled drums.
All the officers of the army and navy stationed near by, and the citizens
of Cumberland, Amelia Island, and St. Mary’s took part in the funeral
procession.

Lee was buried in the Greene family burial ground, a beautiful shel-
tered spot looking out to sea. The navy’s salute — fifteen guns — boomed
from the flagship. Three ruffles of the drum marked the passing of a
major general of the United States Army, while the troops stood at
present arms. Taps sounded and the last volleys of musketry were fired
over the grave.10

i 1 i i

In Alexandria they speak of it today: how, sometime in April, in the

10In 1913 the body of Lee was removed from Cumberland Island to Lexington, Virginia,
where it was placed in the Lee Chapel of Washington and Lee University, beside that of his
son. Robert.

364

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

year 1818, a boy came to the house on Cameron Street where Mrs. Gen-
eral Lee lived, and gave her the letter which told of her husband’s death.

The Daily National Intelligencer of Washington carried the notice
on Wednesday, April 8, 1818:

DIED

In the 6lst year of his age, on the 25th March last, at the house of a friend,
on Cumberland Island, Georgia, on his return from the West Indies to his
native state, Virginia, Major General HENRY LEE, a conspicuous officer in
the Revolutionary Army.

He entered as a captain of cavalry, in the Virginia line, at the age of 19,
in which situation he soon commanded the respect and attention of his coun-
try, by his active and daring enterprize, and the confidence of the illustrious
commander-in-chief of the military forces of the United States; a confidence
which continued through life. He was rapidly promoted to the rank of Major,
and soon after to that of Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of a separate
legionary corps. While Major, he planned and executed the celebrated attack
on the enemy’s post at Paulus Hook, opposite to the city of New York; their
head-quarters; surprized and took the garrison, under the eye of the British
army and navy, and safely conducted his prisoners into the American lines,
many miles distant from the post taken. There are few enterprizes to be found
on military record, equal in hazard or difficulty, or conducted with more con-
summate skill and daring courage. It was, too, accomplished without loss,
filled the camp of the enemy with shame and astonishment, and shed an un-
fading lustre on the American arms. Sometime after he accompanied General
Greene to the southern department of the United States, subsequent to the
memorable and disastrous battle of Camden, which reduced under the power
of the enemy the three states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The many brilliant achievements which he performed in that difficult and
arduous war, under this celebrated and consummate commander, it is not neces-
sary to enumerate; they are so many illustrious monuments of American cour-
age and prowess, which, in all future ages, will be the theme of historic praise
of grateful recollection by his countrymen, and of ardent imitation by every
brave and patriotic soldier. Those states were recovered from the enemy. The
country enjoys in peace, independence and liberty, the benefits of his useful
service. All that remains to him, is a grave and the glory of his deeds. . . .

At the close of the revolutionary war, he returned to the walks of civil life.
He was often a member of the Legislature of the state of Virginia; one of its
delegates to Congress under the confederation, and one of the convention which
adopted the present constitution of the United States, and which he supported;
three years Governor of the state, and afterwards a Representative in the
Congress of the United States, under the present organization. . . .

Every public station to which he was called he filled with dignity and pro-
priety.

In private life he was kind, hospitable, and generous. Too ardent in the

THE END AT DUNGENESS

365

pursuit of his objects — too confident in others, he wanted that prudence which
is necessary to guard against imposition and pecuniary losses, and accumulate
wealth. Like many other illustrious commanders and patriots, he has died poor.

He has left behind him a valuable historical work, entitled Memoirs of the
war in the Southern Department of the United States. . . .

CHAPTER XIX: THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

Z'" || SHE death of Light-Horse Harry Lee made Henry, the only surviv-
ing son of his marriage to Matilda, the master of Stratford.
-i-L (Henry was the fourth of his family to bear the name.) As a
matter of fact Henry had been living at Stratford as the head of the house
for some years but he did not own the plantation legally until his
father’s life tenure was ended in 1818.

On June 10 of this year his friend F. W. Gilmer, of Richmond,
wrote him: "If I could have urged any topics of consolation to you, my
dear Lee, on the death of your illustrious Father, I should not have been
behind Mr. King or any one else in condoling with you. But it seemed
to me more unkind than friendly to be vexing you in the first hour of
your sorrow, with all the commonplace stuff in praise of that lingering
& uncertain Physician — Time, which is so strenuously recommended to
Cicero by Sulpitius. Such consolation is unworthy both of your regret
and of your character.”

In this letter Gilmer also gave his estimate of Major Henry’s abilities
and urged him to make use of his talents: "I wish that you had some-
thing of my impatient spirit, which is only content while oppressed
with occupation. The more proofs you give about your genius, the
more intolerant I become of the [illegible] difference which alone [ob-
structs?] your march to distinction. Tho’ I feel as sensibly as you [il-
legible] the comparative insignificance of the theatre on which it is
our destiny to act, I do not find that consideration a sufficient excuse for
a supine indifference to our own and our countries glory. Is there not
something in the very insignificance of our age & cotemporaries which
should prompt us to nobler aspirations? If you would but turn with
systematic industry, the wandering enthusiasm of your genius to the
regular pursuit of any one object whatever it may be, it requires no
ghost to announce the eminence you will attain.”1

Major Henry had returned to the Great House shortly after he was
mustered out of the army in 1815. Born at Stratford May 28, 1787, his
first years had been spent there, in the governor’s mansion in Richmond
and in Philadelphia. Aside from his father’s informal tutoring he re-
ceived a more academic training than his half brothers. After his brief
course at Washington College, Lexington, the year his half brother
Robert was born, he entered the College of William and Mary where

1Lee Manuscript : Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation.
[366]

THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

367

he remained two or three years. Entering local politics in 1810, Henry
was elected for three successive terms to represent Westmoreland Coun-
ty in the Virginia House of Delegates. When his family moved from
Stratford to Alexandria, Henry was still in the General Assembly. On
April 7, 1813, he was appointed a major in the 36th regiment of United
States Infantry, by President Madison. He saw service on the Canadian
frontier, first as aide-de-camp to General James Wilkinson and after-
ward to General George Izard of South Carolina. General Izard was a
family connection of the Lees by his marriage to Tom Shippen’s widow,
Elizabeth Farley Shippen. On Lee’s return from Canada he was widely
entertained in New York. Here, according to F. W. Alexander, he met
the famous Scotch critic, Jeffrey, and "both men were much sought after
in society on account of their brilliant conversational powers.” Henry
A. Wise, a contemporary, says of Lee: "He was not handsome as his
half brother, General Robert E. Lee; but rather ugly in face, a mouth
without a line of the bow of Diana about it, and nose not cut clean and
classic, but rather meaty . . . but he was one of the most attractive men
in conversation we ever listened to.” Of Lee, G. W. Beale repeats the
Westmoreland tradition: "He was a brilliant conversationalist, the
charm of old and young alike save when, as was some times the case, a
satirical spirit seasoned his talk too heavily with sarcasm. This feature
of his character has somewhat tinged his writings.”

From New York Major Lee went to Washington, where, with a num-
ber of other young officers also retiring from military and naval service,
he became one of the beaux of the Capital city.

It is apparent from his father’s letters that Major Henry was in fre-
quent touch with the Stratford family in Alexandria. To repeat his
father’s phrase: "Henry . . . thanks to Almighty God tenderly and
sincerely loves his brothers and sisters.” And Carter refers to him as
"my full, in affection, though half in blood, brother Henry.” All the
family were devoted to him and the happiest relations existed between
them. Henry was especially kind and generous to Carter, Smith and
Robert.2

Despite Ann Lee’s straitened circumstances and his father’s misfor-
tunes, young Henry appears to have had gay times with his companions
in Washington and equally pleasant days at Stratford. His half brothers
shared in the good times there and especially enjoyed the sports and
deer hunts through the Stratford forests.

-’Statement to author by Mildred Lee Francis, daughter of Carter.

b-**i*.

The entrance road to Stratford.

THE LAST LEE MASTER OE STRATFORD

369

Major Henry returned to the political "arena” in Westmoreland,
which he had abandoned temporarily for "the field of Mars” — as he
would have expressed it. He aspired to higher honors than were af-
forded a member of the State Assembly and in the fall of 1816 an-
nounced his candidacy for Congress. But his ambitions were not real-
ized; he was defeated in the election.

Among Major Henry’s intimate friends whose letters to him have
survived were Major William Clarke Somerville of St. Mary’s County,
Maryland, F. W. Gilmer of Richmond, J. B. Nicholson and Major H.
Hunt. His acquaintance with the belles of Washington and New York
was extensive. Of one in particular, "Miss Serena,” Nicholson wrote
him soon after Lee’s departure for Westmoreland:

"... Serena was all loveliness when I left New York, but she is
not for a Virginian: You mistake, I did not ever dare to look upon her
but as a friend, I was not your rival. If you had possessed ten thousand
a year — she would long ere this been Mrs Lee — of this enough.

"If I can in my travels manage matters I will not fail to come to your
part of the country. I shall return to Virginia, but I shall be happy to
hear from you in Philadelphia. I have much to talk to you about when
it may be of our good fortune to meet, which I hope it may be shortly;
But I hope you will get married, to some fine woman. It is much better
than remain as we are — I only wish I was. ...”

Major Hunt also writes the Washington chit-chat:

Washington May 1st 1816

Dear Lee

I last night had a peep at the new staff & saw your name as Ass. Insp. Gen.1
for the Southern Division. Wool Insp.r gen1 for the North. Mullany Q M
Gen.1 &c — Why have you not been up? Mrs. C. has left us [illegible] disap-
pointed at not seeing you. Our whole family will leave here immediately. Much
disgusted. Our city is dull & dusty. Lt Dallas is still pushing at Miss Law.
. . . Geo. D. will be married next month. Quite too warm. Congress put
down the commissioners for rebuilding. Van Ness was afterwards offered, as
the superintendent but was rejected by the senate. Col Lane has the appoint-
ment. Mr. R. B. Lee is appointed Commissioner for settling old war claims.
Another accountant is given to the War Dep.t [Hjagner is appointed — We
have no news here, damn glad to get rid of Congress. Somerville passed through
this place a few days ago for Balt.m Bankhead is here. I would advise you not
to go into the Army. God bless you —

Besides the gossip about people and events in his voluminous cor-
respondence from Stratford, Major Henry, as Gilmer’s letters show,
delighted in long critical dissertations on poets, essayists, history and

370

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

literature. In one of Gilmer’s lengthy letters of February, 1816, he
thanks Lee "for your friendship in inviting me to Stratford — a meet
place for collecting into one reservoir these sweet fountains, for whose
streams I have thirsted thro’ the desert of life.”

Hunt continues to keep Major Henry en rapport with all that goes on
in Washington. He gives a clue to "Miss Serena’s” successor in the af-
fections of the young master of the Great House and forecasts the
identity of the next mistress of Stratford Hall:

Washington March 18th 1816.

Dear Lee

I should have written to you sooner; but expected to see you in this place be-
fore now. Mrs C is still here & expresses great anxiety to see you. She will
remain during this month. There is a report that Dallas will leave here in May,
either to go to Russia, or to be president of the National Bank. George has
made up all differences with Miss N. & will return to Philadelphia in June &
be married. There is a talk of Dexter succeeding Dallas.

On Saturday night a caucus was held for President & Vice President. Monroe
& Tomkins were recommended. This meets my approbation. Somerville has
just returned here from New York. He talks in the most extravagant stile of
Miss Henderson & Miss Magt Livingston. I dare not attempt to imitate his lan-
guage. Poor Angelica died on the 8th of Jany- Miss Serena he says is as charming
& interesting as ever, but no prospect of matrimony The belles are leaving Wash-
ington, [but] much execution was done by them. I lost my heart with a little
girl from Baltimore but unfortunately she was engaged. Your neighbor Miss
McCarty has been here dashing in a fine carriage. She is now with Mrs Robin-
son. Miss Law keeps much in retirement, acting the dignifyed character. It is
supposed that she is engaged to Biddle.

There are many large fortunes here, but I cannot bend my views to such
sordid game.

The Staff bill of the Army, it is supposed will not pass. Somorville sends his
best respects to you. Miss Rush gave him the cut direct in Philadelphia. He
does not like to talk of that place. M.r King [son of Rufus King] of New
York has written to you repeatedly, but fears his letters did not reach you.

T Mason is said to be engaged to Miss Mayo. God bless you.

Yr friend sincerely
H Hunt

I have not rec.d yr watch
H. Somerville is in Baltme
Addressed: Majr Henry Lee

Stradford

Near West Moreland O house.

Virginia

The "clue” is found in the single line: "Your neighbor, Miss McCarty
has been here dashing in a fine carriage. ...” Miss McCarty was Anne

THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

371

Robinson McCarty, daughter and heiress of Daniel McCarty of Pope’s
Creek, the two-thousand-acre plantation which bordered Stratford on
the west and extended to the cliffs on the Potomac. Its name had been
recently changed to Longwood, in tribute to Napoleon’s last home, for
to Westmoreland, as to every section of Virginia, Bonaparte was the
most dramatic figure of the time.

Since the late seventeenth century, the McCartys, members of a noble
Irish house, had been friends and neighbors of the Lees, as they were
of the Popes, Washingtons, Ashtons, Carters, Stuarts and Fitzhughs.
During the first quarter of the eighteenth century the McCarty and Lee
families were connected through the marriage of Ann Lee Fitzhugh
(widow of William Fitzhugh of Eagle’s Nest), only sister of Thomas
Lee, to Captain Daniel McCarty, burgess and speaker of the House,
1715-1720. Colonel Daniel McCarty of the next generation was a
church and business associate of General Washington and one of his
intimate friends.

Each head of the McCarty clan was in his turn a successful planter
and so enterprising in other business activities that, besides cultivating
tobacco and raising thoroughbred horses, he was instrumental in build-
ing up the industry that supplied the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore
and Washington with Westmoreland brick.

In many ways the lives of Anne and her sister, Elizabeth McCarty,
heiresses of the House of McCarty, parallel those of Matilda and Flora
Lee of the generation preceding theirs. From the same courthouse, just
such time-stained records are to be found. Inventories record the various
happenings in the lives of the two McCarty girls from 1802 to 1817,
their many trips and journeys, their rich apparel, their lessons, books,
occupations, the sums paid for their education, the new acquisitions of
property increasing their holdings, up to the time of Anne’s wedding
day. Their mother was Margaret, daughter of William and Margaret
Williamson Robinson and great-granddaughter of Colonel William
Robinson, one of the prominent planters of Westmoreland, who came
to Virginia in 1695 from Yorkshire. Through Margaret’s marriage to
young Daniel McCarty, who had succeeded to the ownership of Pope’s
Creek Plantation, the McCarty stud and the McCarty fortune, large
properties were joined. Anne Robinson was born at Pope’s Creek in
1798, and Elizabeth about 1801. McCarty died shortly after Elizabeth’s
birth, leaving Anne Robinson and Elizabeth, his only children, the
richest heiresses of Westmoreland.

372 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Some time in 1802 — the date is not recorded — his young widow mar-
ried Richard Stuart of Cedar Grove, King George County, son of the
Reverend William Stuart, rector of St. Paul’s Church, King George.

The family continued to live at the McCarty plantation. During the
next five years Margaret bore three children, a daughter named Mar-
garet and two sons. The elder boy died; and in 1808, in giving birth to
her younger son, Richard Henry Stuart, Margaret McCarty Stuart died.
In her will she appointed her husband, Richard Stuart, administrator of
her estate and guardian of her daughters, Anne Robinson and Elizabeth
McCarty. The two girls went to live with their grandmother, Mildred
Williamson Robinson, who, through her second marriage, was Mrs.
John Rose of Mount Rose Plantation, Westmoreland. Mrs. Rose sent
her granddaughters to Madame Greland’s exclusive and expensive
school in Philadelphia to be "finished.” Both girls were exceptionally
well educated and accomplished. Shortly after their return from school
the two girls were evidently introduced to Washington society. Anne
was eighteen. A contemporary portrait shows her strikingly handsome,
even regal, with blue-black hair, dark eyes, and arched brows. It indi-
cates, too, her romantic cast of thought, her spirited temper, her stormy,
undisciplined emotions. In whatever circle she moved Anne McCarty
would be impressive. With her family’s thoroughbreds and fine car-
riages, she must have been an outstanding figure in Washington.

Henry Lee, living "next door” to Pope’s Creek and so near Mount
Rose, had doubtless known Anne McCarty from childhood. This may
have been a reason for his not being disposed to regard her at first with
sentiment. However, after he learned of the stir Anne made in Wash-
ington and the romantic Serena whom he had so desired to make "Mrs.
Lee” became only a memory, he paid successful court to Anne McCarty.

Stratford was evidently then in a sad state of disrepair. Much had to
be done to make it ready for the bride. The McCarty inventories men-
tion sums of money given Henry Lee at that time. In the marriage con-
tract various pieces of Anne’s property, negroes, stock, etc., are trans-
ferred to Lee. The wedding took place March 29, 1817.

Some of the old McCarty silver, blazoned with the shield and crest of
McCarty and bearing the date 1620, was now probably added to the
few pieces of Lee plate in the Great House. The fifth mistress of Strat-
ford undoubtedly brought, with her own jewels, laces and gowns, chests
of linen and other household goods of every kind to replenish the scant
supply.

THE LAST LEE MASTER OE STRATFORD

373

A list of the books she brought to the Great House includes "L.
Byron’s Works, complete Sett”; the Rambler, Telemachus, Lady of the
Lake, Roderick, Crab’s Poems, Byron’s Works (second set), Ossian’s
Poems, Alison’s Sermons, Poet’s Pilgrimage, Mader of the Moor.

Stratford entered upon a new era of comfort and luxury. Not since
the days of Philip Ludwell’s daughters, Matilda and Flora, had the sur-
roundings been so rich, the entertainment so sumptuous and extrava-
gant. So gay and festive were the days that, several months after the
wedding, Anne’s sister Elizabeth agreed to make her home at Stratford.
She took her own maid and made an arrangement to share in the
family expenses by turning over her fortune into the care of her brother-
in-law. She named Henry Lee her guardian in place of her stepfather,
Richard Stuart. It was an amicable arrangement as the court record
shows:

At a Court of Quarterly Sessions held for Westmoreland County the twenty
fourth of November 1817.

Elizabeth McCarty, orphan of Daniel McCarty, came into court and made
choice of Henry Lee, who as her guardian, together with Richard Stuart, his
surety, entered into and acknowledged a bond in the penalty of $60,000.00
conditioned according to law.3

John Fox, C.W.C.

At this time — 1817 — Elizabeth McCarty was not quite seventeen years
old. In the words of a neighbor she "was low in stature — short and
plump, and she had the tiniest and prettiest little feet I ever saw. Even
when I knew her and that was when she had grown old — she had the
daintiest little feet and ever so many shoes and slippers. How I used to
admire those slippers when I was a child! Her hair was white when I
knew her, and cut off short — but I always heard it said when she was
young it was very, very beautiful — a sort of chestnut brown in natural
curls and ringlets.”

In contrast to Anne, Elizabeth was gentle and even tempered. She
shared her sister’s interest in music, poetry and flowers. Like Major
Henry, both young women enjoyed society and liked to entertain:

McKenzie Beverley, who was frequently at Stratford then, says: "The
family lived in an elegant and expensive style.4 Miss McCartv’s friends,
relations and visitors were often there and Miss McCartv had been re-

3 F i 1 e 166, Clerk’s Office, Corporation Court, Fredericksburg, Va.

‘Deposition of McKenzie Beverley, Sept. 9, 1822. File 166, Clerk's Office, Corporation
Court. Fredericksburg, Va.

374 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

quired to contribute a proportion of the expenses of the family for the
support of herself and servant.”

Anne McCarty Lee’s first and only child, a daughter, was born some-
time in the fall of 1818. The exact date is not known, official records of
births not then being kept. The baby was named Margaret for Anne’s
mother.

The family continued to live in the style described by McKenzie
Beverley. Major Henry, even more careless about expenditures than
his father had been, was apparently unmindful of the costs of living
and the steady dissipation of his wife’s and his ward’s fortunes.

Certain of Lee’s friends were gravely concerned at this time over his
predilection for the flesh pots of Egypt and his abandonment of the
intellectual vocation to which they felt he was destined.

Another excerpt from Gilmer’s letter of June 10, 1818, shows this
feeling:

You have a library, leisure, fortune, genius, & ambition; why then will you
be content like Lyttleton, to shed a few transient radiations over the minds of
your friends; & exert yourself just enough, to make them regret that you will
not do more. Rouse from your lethargy. — 'Shake the dew drops, from the Lions
mane,’ & do what your friends, your country, the spirits of an [illustrious?]
ancestry demand of you. Undertake some continued labour — a history of our
country, or of a particular epoch, — and eclipse as it is no compliment to you,
to say you can, the meagre & abortive journal of the Chief Justice (I speak this
not in scorn — you know my ideas of his great ability.) Let it be a nine or a
twenty years labour, & not like our unripe essays the progeny of a damp & un-
wholesome day. . . .

The general impression about young Henry Lee then prevailing is also
expressed by Colonel James Appleton Storrow, who said Lee was "a
gentleman of great fortune & talents — more distinguished perhaps than
any young man in Virginia for excellence of various sorts. His genius,
liberality, his devotion to his Mother’s family & promise of eminence
being the theme of everyone. ...”

Two years passed. Then, it must have been in January or February of
1820, a tragedy put an end to all the merrymaking. Little two year old
Margaret died. The child was playing in the Great Hall. Running out
of the front door to the high stoop, she fell down the steep flight of
stone steps and was killed in the same way little Philip Ludwell Lee had
met his death nearly two generations before.

The child’s mother was inconsolable and was thrown into a despond-
ency so deep that her very reason was despaired of for a time. In an

THE LAST LEE MASTER OE STRATFORD

375

effort to deaden her grief, Anne began to take morphine and soon be-
came a victim to the drug. Her grandmother, Mrs. Rose, writes sorrow-
fully of this fact. There was nothing she or any of the stricken family
could do to deter Anne from her course.

A gloom settled over the Great House. Other tragedies came. Day
after day, month after month, Henry Lee and Elizabeth McCarty were
thrown "into a state of the most unguarded intimacy,” as Lee himself
afterward said.

The fact that Elizabeth bore Henry Lee a child, who, according to
Westmoreland tradition, died at birth, spread the knowledge of their
relations broadcast through the county and, indeed, all Virginia.

Henry Lee’s act was termed by many "seduction” and "a crime of the
blackest dye.” His fiduciary relationship to Elizabeth — that of guardian
— intensified the gravity of the act.

Elizabeth was in her nineteenth year. No letter or written statement
from her about the matter survives. From the collection of Lee’s private
correspondence and public documents it appears that the men best
acquainted with the actual circumstances were Henry Lee’s friend, Rich-
ard T. Brown of Windsor, Westmoreland, and Lee’s half brother,
Carter. Although not in any wise condoning the offence, Carter "did
not believe that because a man did one thing wrong that he was as black
as Satan.”5

Elizabeth’s stepfather and former guardian, Richard Stuart, came to
Stratford and took Elizabeth home to Cedar Grove. He was very kind
to her, and she had always the affectionate regard of her little sister
Margaret and her brother Richard Henry Stuart. Deeply repentant,
Elizabeth put on mourning and cut off her beautiful hair. Henceforth
she went out in public only to church and then always heavily veiled.

Through Richard Stuart, Elizabeth prayed the Court to dismiss Henry
Lee as her guardian and reappoint her stepfather. She was still a minor.
For the next nine years the case of Stuart vs. Lee was in progress in the
courts of Westmoreland and Spotsylvania. Lee was removed by the
Westmoreland Court as Elizabeth McCarty’s guardian and Stuart named
in his place. Two commissioners from the county were appointed by the
court at Stuart’s instance to secure an accounting from Lee of his former
ward’s finances and properties and agree on a basis for a settlement. Ac-
cording to File 166, Clerk’s Office, Corporation Court, Fredericksburg,
Virginia:

“Statement to writer by Airs. Francis.

376

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The Commissioners report that the account between Henry Lee guardian and
his ward, Elizabeth McCarty has been found correct. . . .

Lastly: Your commissioners have made up an account between H. Lee and
Elizabeth McCarty his ward in which she is indebted with the respective sums
with which she stands charged in private account marked number 3 together
with board for her self and servant and clothes for servant. We have credited
the said E. McCarty for one half of the profits of the Popes Creek estate from
the time the said possession to the present day as will more fully appear by
reference being had to the general statement of disbursements and sale.

We have also credited the said E. McCarty for the sum of $11,598.97 that
being the amount received by the said H. Lee as guardian aforesaid from
Richard Stuart former guardian of said E. McCarty with interest thereon on the
24th of November 1817 to the present day. . . .

In respect to the balance found due by the said H. Lee, he requests us to say
in our report that he has about eight thousand dollars of assets which he is
now willing to assign to Richard Stuart the present guardian of Miss McCarty.

Given under our hand and seal the 20th day of May 1821.

Signed: Robert L. Hipkins, Joseph Fox.
John W. Jones, Attorney for Henry Lee.

The last Lee master of Stratford faced a long grim winter in the Great
House. The wolves in Stratford forest preyed relentlessly upon the
live stock. Meeting no adequate resistance, they increased in numbers
and boldness as the weeks passed. By night there were hideous sounds —
the howling of the wolves and sometimes perhaps the death shriek of
an animal.

Lee appealed for help to Sabine Hall — century-old friend and neigh-
bor of Stratford. He wrote to Robert Carter:

I am not able to make a suitable apology, for the liberty I take of mentioning
to you, that I have heard it suggested you have several good hounds to give
away, and of asking you to give me 3 or 4 of them. The wolves and foxes prey
so audaciously and in such numbers around us that without the active assistance
of dogs we shall have none but the larger quadrupeds left on our farm.

Will you be so good as to let me hear from you by return of post? And
believe me to be with sincere esteem for y.r self & the family at Sabine Hall
your humble & faithful servd6

HLee

Stratford

8th- Feb.y 1821
[On verso]

West.d Ct. HS.

February 8, 1821

“Copy from photostat of original autographed letter from Henry Lee to Robert Carter of
Sabine Hall presented to Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc., by A. W. Wellford.

THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

377

The difficulty of living in Westmoreland in the face of scandal and
the necessity for funds at length induced Henry Lee to sell Stratford
Plantation and move from the county. Having heard of the return from
South America of his old military friend Major William Clarke Somer-
ville, who had been abroad some years and had just sold his Maryland
estate, Mulberry Fields, Lee opened negotiations to sell Stratford to him.
On June 27, 1822, the sale was effected:

This Indenture made the 27th day of June 1822 Between Henry Lee and Ann
his wife of County of Westmoreland, Virginia of the one part and William C.
Somerville of County of St. Mary’s, Maryland of the other part —

Witnesseth — that said Henry Lee and Ann R. his wife in consideration of sum
of $25,000 in hand paid by said Wm. C. Somerville have bargain & sold unto
said Wm. C. Somerville his heirs &c. a certain Tract of land lying in the County
of Westmoreland called and known by the name of Stratford, supposed to con-
tain 3000 Acres more or less— bounded on the North by the River Potomac, on
West by the lands of the late Daniel McCarty, dec’d of Pope’s Creek and the
lands of the late Lawrence Pope and of Richard Bayne on South and West by

the lands of Anderson, of late Pope Tiffey, late Rodham Kenner and of

Geo. W. P. Custis, late Burdette Eskridge, late Walker Muse of Peggy San-
ford, late Rodham Moxley and of John Hopkins — together with all houses,
barns, buildings, stables, yards, gardens, orchards, lands, tenements, meadows,
pastures, feedings, commons, woods, underwoods, ways, waters, watercourses,
fishing privileges &c.

H. Lee, A. R. Lee.

Recorded July 22, 1822 — Jos. Fox C. W. C.

Anne McCarty Lee apparently remained at the Great House only until
this transaction was concluded and her required signature affixed to the
document. She then left her husband, Westmoreland and all her hold-
ings, and went to live in Tennessee. In the surviving letters and papers
there is no evidence that she had any communication with Elizabeth for
the rest of her life.

Lee himself went to live in Fredericksburg after the sale of Stratford.
He began to write assiduously. His first book, The Campaign of 1781
in the Carolinas, was a spirited, if somewhat jumbled, vindication of
his father from attacks published in Johnson’s Biography of Nathanael
Greene. During the next two or three years Lee also wrote political
pamphlets. He held his citizenship in Westmoreland and on September

I, 1824, the county records show that he cast his vote for Andrew Jack-
son. As he himself later wrote, he was active in this unsuccessful cam-
paign and his activity told against him. Lee’s writing apparently brought
small financial returns, for he found it necessary to seek some office in

The Great House Deserted.

THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

379

the Government. But, wherever he went, word of his transgression
preceded him. The doors of one-time friends in Fredericksburg, Rich-
mond and Washington were closed to him. From all those homes where
Lee had once been such a favorite he was now ostracized. Everywhere
was he spoken of as "Black Florse Harry” or "Black Harry.” Of his im-
mediate family and connections, his sister, Lucy Grymes — Mrs. Bernard
M. Carter — and Carter Lee alone remained his friends. Both Lucy and
Carter were perhaps the only ones familiar with all of the circumstances.
Appalling and inexcusable as they were, they felt there were perhaps
extenuating circumstances. Nor did they think that Henry was wholly
"black.” Their letters to him show that they recalled the years of their
childhood when this unfortunate brother had shown them all kindness
and affection. Lucy, with a houseful of daughters, frequently invited
Henry to stay with them in Philadelphia. Carter gave his legal services
in Henry’s behalf through years of incessant litigation from many
sources.

It was nearly two years before Lee succeeded in getting a position by
which he could earn even a meagre living. In the spring of 1825 he
received the appointment of Assistant Postmaster General, "only a tem-
porary agency,” he wrote General Jackson, "& a salary that would
hardly bribe a slave.” Slight as it was, the appointment was the signal
for a heavy barrage of incredible slanders. A number of Lee’s friends
in Westmoreland, men who had known him and loved him from his
boyhood, came to his defense as this letter of May 24, 1825, from Rich-
ard T. Brown of Westmoreland shows:

The day after my last letter to you, I spent an hour with your former neigh-
bour, M.rs Eskridge — I found her to merit the good opinion that you have al-
ways entertained of her and I am amply compensated for my ride in becoming
acquainted with so good a woman. She has all the charitable principles of a real
Christian, & for you & Mrs Lee the kindness of a sincere and devoted friend.
As to the money you owe her I think she feels much less uneasiness than you
do. The case is rather different with Mr Butler — the old Gentleman has been
suid and fears his property may be sold by the sheriff — However I believe his
fears are quieted & his confidences in you unabated.

Mr Taliaferro mentioned to me some time since that the persecution of your
enemys had followed you most [illegible] into the station that you now fill,
and that attempts had been made to injure you with the Post Mast Gen.1 In
conformity to the understanding that M.r T. & myself come to on the subject, I
send to him, an address to the P.M. Gen1 signed by sundry of your county men
approving of his appointment of you to the office you hold which he will for-
ward to the P.M. Gen1 with such remarks as he may choose to add, when you no

380 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

doubt will see it. . . . Present my respectful regard to Mrs Lee — tell her that
all her poor neighbours about Stratford make unceasing inquireys after her, and
that they still have a grateful recollection of her kindnesses to them and that
they desire most sincerely her health & happiness.

A few months later as the persecution continued, Brown again wrote
Lee:

The impudence & falsehood of your enemies is equaled only by the business of
the assassin-like mode of their attack on you. They are few in numbers &
feeble in strength and you aught not to fear them. Your appointment gives
more general satisfaction than you are aware of. I have not been able to dis-
cover the author of the letter signed a Citizen of Maryland, by the hand writing
but I find one of the scraps is from the back of the letter, which is marked one
cent postage & proves it to have been mailed at Washington. If I was to form
any opinion on the subject I should suspect it to be the production of some
jealous aspirant for office in the City who wishes to fill your place.

Inclosed I send you a Piece that I cut out of the Richmond enquirer of the 5
Inst It is on the same subject. I suppose you hardly thought that you were to
be a subject for discussion among those grave ? government reformers in the
late Staunton Convention.

With his situation in the Postmaster General’s office so precarious,
Lee obtained additional employment as a political writer for John C.
Calhoun. He also prepared a second edition of his father’s Memoirs.
It had been one of Light-Horse Harry Lee’s desires to have such an edi-
tion with the manuscript corrections he had made and the notes from
Colonel Howard. In deference to his father’s wish, Henry Lee took
up this work, adding to the book additions and explanations of his own.
Through correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, he obtained a more
exact account of Jefferson’s course as Governor of Virginia at the time
of Arnold’s invasion. Colonel James R. Fenwick of the United States
Army financed the printing.

Lee’s industry was indefatigable. He also began conscientiously to
pay sums from his earnings on account of his obligations to Elizabeth
McCarty, as his letters to Carter show. His solicitude for his wife never
ceased. His deep repentence and his effort to make amends for his
wrong doing are shown by every available record. But the fact that he
still held an official position appeared to arouse increasingly violent
animosity from innumerable people. His utterances as a political writer
were misconstrued by President Adams himself, as well as by his friends,
and even by Jackson men. That many false representations against Lee
were made is shown in his letter of September 11, 1825, to Andrew
Jackson to be quoted in these pages.

381

THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

How persistent Lee’s enemies continued to be in their efforts to turn
him out of the small office he held and at the same time how disturbed,
how loyal and friendly were his former tenants at Stratford and the
friends and neighbors who knew him best, are evident from Richard
Brown’s next letter:

I inclose you two Letters that I have lately received from M.r Taliaferro &
Doct.r Pitts on the subject of the late wicked attempts of your enemies to injoure
your standing with the postmaster Gen.l I think with M.r Taliaferro that you
should take no further notice of such base & unprincipled attempts on your
repose, and I am persuaided that the postmaster Gen.l will readily perceive the
mallignant spirit of the persecution that pursues you and will [illegible] it ac-
cordingly. . . . Are you never to be forgiven for one sin ? and is that single act
of your life to give a license for all kinds of abuse and calumny to be levelled
at you by all that are base enough to attempt your distruction by every species
of falshood & defamation, and can such slanderers receive the countenance of
the virtuous & enlightened part of community? When I reflect on your talents
and standing in this county, as a man, a citizen, a neighbour, a landlord & master
before your tragical affair with Miss M. above alluded to, and the degree of re-
pute in those respects which that affair left you in, I can only deplore the catas-
trophe that has blasted prospects so bright as those you held & forced you from
the society of early friends, and the home of your ancestors. You will pardon
me for reviveing a subject that I well know is a painful one to you but as it
is the only act of your life that could possibly give to your enemies colour or
pretext for their slanderous abuse of your character I could not help adverting
to it. It is however intended in the freedom & feeling of friendship that wishes
to soothe & not wound your feelings — the best refutation to the slanderous
charges of your enemies against you, will be found in the affections of your
former tenants & neighbours who hold in grateful remembrance your benevo-
lence & charity to them. My sons desire their love to you. I am Sir with great
regard

Your friend & servt

Richd T. Brown

Nevertheless the hue and cry against Henry Lee continued. When,
because of his personal kindness to Lee, the Postmaster General, Judge
McLean, was falsely attacked as an enemy of the Adams administration
and when Jackson’s political adherents sought by unfounded slanders to
impeach Lee’s unswerving loyalty to him, Lee became genuinely alarmed.
Although he did not at that time have a personal friendship with Gen-
eral Jackson, there was no man whom he admired and revered more, no
man whose cause he more desired to serve. On the brink of ruin, Lee
wrote Jackson. Lee’s copy of this unpublished letter, but recently dis-

382

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

covered, explains many heretofore unknown details of the political
situation as well as the tragedy of his own life:

Gadsby’s Hotel: 11. th Sep.tr

1825

dear General

Nothing is more awkward to a man of the least modesty or feeling than to
speak about himself, &, though the operation is less distressing when his re-
marks are reduced to writing, yet even then it is decidedly unpleasant. I can
speak feelingly on this subject for what I describe, I actually experience, Ne-
cessity (for the fear of losing your confidence, is the severest moral necessity
that I can be subjected to) compels me to address you on my own subject — In
the Washington City gazette of the 9-th Inst appeared an extract from the
Nashville Republican — expressing on the part of that correspondent extreme
surprise at my being appointed (as he says) ass.t Post M. Gen.1, intimating
strongly that I had recd that appointment, as the price of treachery to you, . . .
Allusions distorted & unfriendly enough to a private and censurable errour of
my domestic life, are then made, the worst representation of which is asserted
to be credible in consequence of the aforesaid Acts of public treachery to you &
to your cause. This is the substance of the piece . . . Under the penalties which
have been hitherto inflicted either by justice, malice, envy, or resentment, upon
me, for the sin of my private life, I have endeavoured to maintain a carriage
composed of fortitude & penitence; And I hope I shall be able to persevere in it
to the end.

The active, though humble & inefficient part, I took in the late contest
for the presidency, exposed me to unusual persecution, & to more searching
slanders, than the intrinsic quality of my offence, would have provoked. But
I only took the part of a freeman, & the painful consequences to myself, I
was not unwilling to bear, in consideration of the advantage which I hoped to
secure to the country. I had never before mingled in political Controversies, so
that I was not influenced by polemical habits; I never asked or received notice or
encouragement from you, so that no hope of personal reward actuated me. The
strength & corruption of a hideous faction, excited my apprehensions, and
qualities which I percieved in your character inspired me with respect & admi-
ration I therefore, by a very plain course of moral influence, became an active
enemy of the causus, & an active friend of your election . . . the deference I
owe to the country he [Adams] represents, & the institutions he ministers, in-
duces me to disclaim any thing like unprovoked opposition to his Gov.t I have
never conceived that respect for him was inconsistent with preference for you, or
that it would be either honourable or politic to oppose his administration, mere-
ly because I had promoted your election. . . . This offer [of assistant Post-
master General] was made me voluntarily & before I ceased to support your
pretensions, & with a perfect & intimate knowledge of the zeal by which I was
actuated. To that neither in its office, or acceptance, was the cause of this or of
that candidate made a condition, or even thought of. Nor do I believe M.r
Adams was Consulted even when the offer was made for the last time. Judge

THE LAST LEE MASTER OF STRATFORD

383

McLean preferred M.r Adams, but had not been hostile to Genl. Jackson, & I
prefered Genl. Jackson — with as little hostility as circumstances permitted to
be compatible with that attitude, to Mr- Adams. I remember when I accepted
the offer, I expressed to my friends, as one reason for preferring it to the place
which I could not get in the State Dept that it was but remotely connected with
the administration & would not even appear to commit my reputation for con-
stancy as a Iackson man. It had the advantage too I observed, of connecting me
with a man of great publick merit & of the most endearing and upright private
character, & who would desire to weaken my political faith neither by the
blandishments nor the unkindness of office. These calculations have been real-
ized— and I have experienced nothing but kind and manly support & confidence
from this excellent individual, who has maintained me, against the industrious
slanders of the town & perha[p]s the higher adherents of Mr. Adams, who
have not failed to represent me as a spy in the camp, & to say that the favour
shown me by the P. Master Genl was a proof of his own aversion to Mr-
Adams . . .You may suppose then that I was both surprised & wounded,
while the jealousy of the Court oppressed me, to find myself an object of more
decided aversion to your friends and even nieghbours. I do not say or even inti-
mate, that I had any claims upon their gratitude or upon their kindness. The
little that I did was done on my own account to indulge my own predilection &
fervour — & constituted no claim, & never was so advanced, upon any man. But
the common sympathies of fellowship I did suppose would shield me from their
injustice & cruelty. For their remarks upon my publick conduct are unjust,
while those upon my private misfortune are cruel. That pang consists almost
entirely of the fear, that some unfavorable impression may be made on your
mind respecting me, & that you may suppose my zeal (if you ever observed it)
in your favour, was meretricious & insincere. And to go farther — the object
of this letter, is to prevent that impression, & to obtain from you a declaration
that it does not exist. I do not believee that any such impression has been made
on you, but I wish most ardently to be certain that it has not — & I beg to be
favoured with the expression of your sentiments on the question.

As for Mr- Adams, I have taken two occasions to remind him since I acted in
the P. office Dept . . . that you were my first choice, . . . On the other hand,
I have never spoken ill of Mr Adams, while I have not forborne to disapprove
some of the military measures of his Cabinet. I do not admire any member of
it . . . Surrounded as he is by inefficient mem[bers] men who either have not
[the] [cjonfidence of the people, or who do not deserve his, it is not rash to
conjecture that four years of confusion & weakness will terminate his career. He
has in my opinion strong and decided Claims to personal & to publick confi-
dence, and I feel the force of these claims so sensibly that it is with regret I see
him, with all his historical & experimental knowledge of government, avoiding
no opportunity of exciting opposition, alienating his friends without conciliating
his enemies, and looking for faithful support to a man & a party who he ought
to know, will always prefer their own interest to his; . . .

If my wishes could regulate the cause of things, M.r Adams would have a
prosperous administration of four years, and you would succeed him, declaiming

384

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

in your inaugural speech, that your predecessor deserved well of his Coun-
try .. . He is constitutionally president, & he is entitled to all the advantages
& opportunities of his office, & if you defeat him in the next Contest, I trust
your victory will be as fair as I consider your claims transcendent, & your dis-
position generous . . .

To this letter Andrew Jackson made a characteristic reply: he invited
Henry Lee to come to the Hermitage as his friend and guest. The letter
is not preserved in Henry Lee’s papers, but Parton’s Life of Andrew
Jackson says:

. . . Another friend of General Jackson, a frequent visitor at the Hermitage
in these years, demands a passing notice — Henry Lee, the son of General
Henry Lee of the Revolution. Henry Lee . . . went, ruined but repentant, to
General Jackson, under whom he had served in the war of 1812. For his
father’s sake, and believing also in the sincerity of his contrition, and giving
due weight to certain extenuating circumstances, General Jackson received
him to his house for a while and remained his fast friend and benefactor to
the close of his life. He employed his [Lee’s] masterly pen in the preparation
of his public papers, and afterward gave him office, not heeding senatorial op-
position. Major Lee wrote some striking works, began a life of General Jack-
son, and has a place in catalogues and literary cyclopedias. It is probable that
the memorial of General Jackson to the Senate in defense of his conduct in the
Seminole War was the composition of Henry Lee. Many of the General’s cam-
paign letters and other political papers were doubtless copied [composed] by
him [Henry Lee] before they met the public eye.

Henry Lee’s atonement and Jackson’s help in reshaping his life make
a moving story. The episode affected Lee’s entire career, as it did that
of his wife and her sister. It likewise materially affected the history of
the Great House, bringing about the departure of the Lees and, after
the brief interlude of Somerville ownership, determining the destiny of
Stratford for more than a hundred years, from 1821 to 1929-

CHAPTER XX: CONSUL TO THE BARB ARY POWERS

ALASTING friendship developed between Jackson and Lee. From
that time, 1825, until General Jackson’s inauguration as seventh
President of the United States, Lee was practically a member of
his household.

In the campaign to defeat Adams, upon which Jackson was now con-
centrating, he found Lee’s talents and industry of specific use. The hero
of New Orleans knew men but he did not know books. For the form
and style of official letters, speeches, political addresses of all sorts and
kinds, he depended greatly upon William B. Lewis, upon General
Duff Green (editor of The United States T ele graph, then the organ of
the Democratic party), and Henry Lee. Of the three, Lee was probably
most constantly beside Jackson as, to quote Parton, his "able scribe."
Lee made a vigorous and definite contribution to Jackson’s presidential
campaign and the beginning of his first administration.

This inevitably had its disadvantages and today complicates an analy-
sis of Jackson’s written utterances. His rugged, characteristic expressions
are frequently clothed in the stilted verbiage of Lee’s eighteenth century
style and thus become obscured. Few written documents of that day
were forthright as men talked, especially as Jackson talked — but were
dressed in flowery phrases or figures far removed from actual speech.
Of all that Jackson "wrote," no one will ever know how much was
Jackson and how much was Lee.

In the early spring of 1827 Lee began a biography of Andrew Jackson.
An announcement, characteristic of the period, of the plan for this pub-
lication appears in the United States Telegraph , March 15, 1827, in
which the "literary pen” of Henry Lee spreads a grand flourish:

Proposals for publishing by subscription a Biography of Andrew Jackson,
Late Maj. Gen’l of the Army of the United States by Henry Lee, Author of
Campaign of 1781.

Biography, though inferior in dignity to History, is not less useless, its ex-
ample being more impressive and its instructions more distinct. If the range
of history is broad and extended, and the events it records massive and con-
spicuous, the views of biography are penetrating and picturesque, and its details
richly coloured with moral learning and glowing sympathies, which attend
our researches into the human heart. For causes that are obvious the lives of il-
lustrious men are the proper subject of this species of composition.

To rescue their names from oblivion and to preserve their memories for the
contemplation of future ages, the chisel, the pencil, and the pen conspire, the
marble leapes into life, the canvass becomes immortal and the light page more

[385]

386 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

durable than brass. This immortality which man gives to man is just as a reward
and beneficial as an incentive. Although the maxim "respice finem” is not less
wise than it is cautious, there are some allowable exceptions to its observance.
Eminent service and signal merit have been known to provoke calumny in as
great a degree as the excited praise. The brightest fame is sometimes obscured
by envy or ill fortune. In such cases it is the duty of biography to disregard
this important canon. Andrew Jackson is one of those men whose great quali-
ties are not fairly estimated by the age in which he lives. . . . It is proposed
therefore to lay before the public, with as little delay as possible a clear account
of his life, and by the light of established facts and unimpeachable testimony,
to examine whatever is disputed to elucidate whatever may seem obscene and
explain whatever is misunderstood in his conduct.

TERMS

It is intended to print this work in handsome style and on good paper. It
will contain about 300 duodecimo pages and will be embellished with a correct
and elegantly executed likeness of Gen’l Jackson. Should the subscription justify
the expense it is intended to give several additional plates. Price $1.50 payable
on delivery.1

The publishing expenses of the biography as a campaign document
were to be met by Duff Green. Profit for the author was not a part of
the plan. The facts are made clear in Green’s letters to Lee.2 Although
some funds were advanced him in Nashville, it appears that Lee had to
give the major portion of his time to the pamphleteering and corre-
spondence by which he earned his daily bread.

On May 30, 1827, Duff Green, glad that Lee was doing the work in
Nashville, wrote to him: "I rejoice that you have gone to Nashville at
this moment. The coalition are alarmed at the activity of the people and
are bringing forth every calumny which their prost(it) uted partisan
can invent to operate upon Gen1 Jackson’s popularity — in this state of
things the fact that you are writing the biography at Nashville will make
the work be more anxiously sought for.” The book, however, did not
progress beyond the manuscript stage — and even the manuscript, now
in the Library of Congress, is incomplete.

About this time a reconciliation took place between Lee and his wife.
When Anne left Stratford her first concern had been to rid herself of
the drug habit. She went to the "Springs” known as "The Fountain of
Health” near Nashville. It was several years before a complete cure
was affected. During this period her husband wrote her constantly
and tried by every means and penance in his power to regain her con-

'Virginia, Caroline County. Woolfork Papers. “Mulberry Place.”
-Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

387

fidence and respect and to earn her forgiveness. "The condition of my
wife I feel insufferably for,” Lee wrote to Carter. He says further in a
letter which he wrote on one of his brief visits East, October 14, 1828,
from the home of his sister Lucy in Philadelphia: "My wife, who has at
last overcome that fatal propensity, which brought on our house such
an Illiad of woe, is heart sick under frequent disappointment and long
desertion, and as M.r Love writes me is sinking again into dangerous
despondency. There are circumstances— this last particularly — that plant
agonies on my nightly pillow & strew with sorrow my daily path.”

Happily Anne’s love for her husband was as deep as his own love and
penitence. It is possible that Andrew Jackson interested himself in
helping to bring about the reunion.

Lee stayed at the Fountain of Health for awhile with Anne, then
moved with her to a house nearer the Hermitage, where he could con-
tinue in close touch with General Jackson. He wrote to Carter:

It is now about a month since the necessity of getting Mrs Lee moved to a
physician, caused me to remove from the fountain of Health to within 2 & l/>
miles of Nashville — where I am now residing. Mrs Lee has been during that
time & for some time before sicker than I ever knew her [to be], and is yet con-
fined to her bed. . . . Being at that time busy at the request of the executive
Jackson [Committee?] of Kentucky in preparing a summary ... of the life
of Jackson from the [war?] to the present time, in order to complete a sketch
of his entire life which they are producing to answer or counteract a scurrilous
lie just published by the Adams party in that state, I put that away also without
reading it, that my mind might act, free from vexatious subjects. My work was
finished and despatched yesterday. . . .

Anne McCarty and Henry Lee evidently reached a complete under-
standing. They began to rebuild their lives and seemed to recapture the
happiness they had so nearly lost. This is clear from the series of sur-
viving letters each wrote Carter. In testimony of Anne’s devoted service
to her husband are many pages of his manuscript in both French and
English patiently copied in her beautifully formed handwriting.

General Jackson and his wife, Rachel, were also on pleasant terms
with Anne. Duff Green wrote Lee in April, 1828, "My best respects to
Mrs. Lee and also to Mrs. Jackson and the General.” Once when the
General was away from the Hermitage for as long as two days, Mrs.
Jackson wrote Lee: " . . .1 send you a lock of the General’s hair. Please
make my respects to Mrs. Lee and accept for yourself my best wishes.”

When the sorrowful days of Rachel Jackson’s last illness and death
came, Henry Lee was close to Jackson. Parton says: "There was no time
for mourning. Haggard with grief and watching, 'twenty years older

388 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

in a night,’ as one of his friends remarked, the President-elect was com-
pelled to enter without delay upon the labor of preparing for his jour-
ney to Washington. His inaugural address, the joint production of him-
self, Major Lewis and Henry Lee, was written at the house of Major
Lewis near Nashville. But one slight alteration was made in the docu-
ment after the General reached the seat of government. General Jack-
son furnished the leading idea — Major Lewis made some suggestions;
Henry Lee gave it form and style.” Lee went with Jackson to Washing-
ton.

At the time of Lee’s return to Washington, in the early spring of 1829,
his father’s widow, "Mrs. General Lee” was living in Georgetown. She
had moved from Alexandria four years previously when Robert entered
West Point and Carter began his law practice in Washington. Ann
Carter Lee had remained but a short time in the small and cramped
quarters of the house on Washington Street in Alexandria where she
had moved after the death of her husband. When one of the Fitzhugh
mansions near by, 607 Oronoco Street, became available, Ann settled
there. It was a stately Georgian house with a beautiful entrance door and
a large side garden next to another Fitzhugh residence used as the Hallo-
well School in which Robert was prepared for the United States Military
Academy at West Point.

During the fourteen years the family lived in Alexandria they spent
a great part of each year at the Fitzhugh estate, Ravensworth Plantation.
Ravensworth was built in the late eighteenth century by William Fitz-
hugh of Chatham and inherited by his only son, William Henry, whose
wife was a Maryland girl, Anna Maria Goldsborough of Myrtle Grove,
Talbot County. William Fitzhugh’s other child was an only daughter,
Mary Lee, who, through her marriage to George Washington Parke
Custis, was the mistress of Arlington House. Mrs. Custis, with her
daughter Mary, was a neighbor and frequent visitor. Of Mrs. Fitz-
hugh’s own immediate family, the Goldsboroughs and Kerrs3 of the
Eastern Shore of Maryland also were frequent guests at Ravensworth.
As the favorite meeting place of all these families, as well as other
kinsfolk and friends, Ravensworth represented for Ann Lee and her
children the happiest side of their sojourn in Alexandria.

3Mrs. Fitzhugh’s sister. Elizabeth Goldsborough was the second wife of John Leeds Kerr
of Maryland, who represented his state for over thirty years in the House of Representatives
and the United States Senate. Mrs. Fitzhugh refers to the visits of the Kerrs to Ravensworth in
her letters to Carter Lee.

William Henry Fitzhngh of Ravensworth. Portrait by Sully.

390 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

After Robert’s departure for West Point and the family’s move to
Georgetown, the pleasant interchange of visits between Ravensworth
and Arlington House continued. The Mason family too remained in
this family group. They were then living on "the Island,” as they called
their home — Analostan Island — in the Potomac River, just across from
Georgetown.4 This property, owned by George Mason of Gunston
Hall, had been inherited by his son John, who built the house and cause-
way to it.

Young Sidney Smith Lee usually spent his shore leave with his
mother, Carter and Mildred in the Georgetown house and shared in
the visits on Analostan Island. Here took place his marriage to Nannie
Mason, one of the daughters of John Mason. A few years later Robert
was to marry another member of this family circle — Mary Custis.5

The numerous letters to Carter Lee, 1825 to 1861, from "Aunt Maria,”
as Mrs. Fitzhugh, though no relation, was affectionately termed by the
Lees, contain interesting details of the Lee family life and events. In a
letter dated February 25, 1829, Mrs. Fitzhugh referred to the incoming
President, Andrew Jackson, and his cabinet, and at the same time spoke
of Ann Lee’s failing strength. It could not have been long after this
date that she invited her to Ravensworth, where she could receive every
comfort and care.

Thus it happened that when Major Henry Lee came back to Washing-
ton his stepmother was at Ravensworth. She was dying then and would
have only Robert beside her. Having just graduated from West Point,
Robert hurried to Virginia to be with his mother: "In her last illness he
mixed every dose of medicine she took, and was with her night and day.
If he left the room, she kept her eyes on the door till he returned. He
never left her but for a short time.”‘;

Late in July Ann Carter Lee died peacefully at Ravensworth and was
buried in the Fitzhugh family graveyard in the garden.7

The National Intelligencer of Wednesday, July 29, 1829, printed this
obituary:

JThis island owned by the District of Columbia is today part of the Park and Planning Com-
mission and has been converted into a bird sanctuary in memory of Theodore Roosevelt.

5Marv Ann Randolph Custis was related to the Lees on both sides. Even though Robert E.
Lee had been born at Stratford and his people Lees for six generations, his wife was more
closely related to the original Stratford Lees than he was. On her mother’s side, Mary Custis
was a direct descendant of Thomas Lee’s sister, the first Ann Lee, wife of William Fitzhugh
of Eagle’s Nest, King George County. On her father’s side, Mary was descended through Jane
Ludwell, wife of Daniel Parke, from the first Philip Ludwell, great-grandfather of the Strat-
ford Lees.

0 Recollections and Letters of General Lee, p. 326.

7The body of Ann Carter Lee was removed later to the Lee Chapel at Lexington.

Airs. William Henry Fitzhugh of Ravensworth.

392 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Mrs. Ann C. Lee, of Georgetown, the widow of Gen. Henry Lee, of the
Revolution, died on the morning of the 26th at Ravensworth, the residence of
W. H. Fitzhugh, surrounded by her family and friends. Her death is such as
might have been expected from her life — exhibiting the resignation and com-
posure of a practical Christian, conscious of having faithfully discharged her
duties both to God and her fellow-creatures. Admired by all who knew her inti-
mately, she has left a chasm in society which will not be easily filled. Her im-
mediate friends most deeply deplore the loss they have sustained. But they
bow in humble submission to a decree which, though afflictive to them, has
transferred the object of their affections from the painful concerns of this life
to the everlasting joys of the world to come.

That there was still a bitter undercurrent of antagonism to Henry
Lee must have become apparent to President Jackson very soon after
his inauguration. In order to aid his friend and political assistant the
President considered placing him in the consular service abroad. He
therefore selected for him a post too minor and remote to stir any
further opposition, an ad interim appointment as consul-general to the
Barbary Powers. Lee would probably have obtained a better place,
Parton says, "but for the fear that the Senate would reject the nomi-
nation.’’

A delight in vicious scandal seems to have been characteristic of this
era. The President believed that cruel and unfounded slander was the
cause of his wife’s untimely death. Toward Henry Lee was directed a
particular venom. Slurring references to the Virginian, which still
appear in biographies of Jackson, indicate the resentment among those
close to him over Lee’s intimacy with the chief. Lee’s position has been
sometimes estimated as that of an underling, merely secretarial, whereas
he served Jackson in an original and creative capacity.

One of Lee’s friends, Gilbert C. Russell, wrote him from Alexandria,
May 14, 1829, expressing the hope he would decline the appointment to
Algiers:

What can you promise yourself? Wealth, fame or ease! An Overseer of little
commercial agents — But for the name of the thing I would rather be an over-
seer of your negroes. Moreover I expected the pleasure of your company next
winter and the idea of disappointment vexes me. I prey that you will inform me
the motives which governed you in takeing the appointment; ... Is Mrs- Lee
willing to it? Write to me at Mobile. Whatever may be your lot or wheresoever
you go, I pray that both of you & Mrs- Lee may enjoy a share of the divine
favour.

Slight as the office was, however, any opportunity to leave the United

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS 393

States with a creditable official title must have been welcomed by Henry
Lee and his wife. He appointed Carter his attorney with full power to
manage his property and interests during his absence, collect money due
him, and to pay his debts. From his prospective salary, which he care-
fully budgeted, he planned to send Carter five hundred dollars annually.
He drew up his will:

I Henry Lee of Westmoreland County, Virginia I give and bequeath all my
estate and effects rights claims, and interest of whatsoever kind or nature which
I shall have or now have right to dispose of to my beloved wife Ann R. Lee
during her natural life. Should she die without issue by me after her death to
my dear brother Charles Carter Lee. I appoint my wife and brother joint execu-
tors.

His wife duplicated this will, leaving her husband her entire estate
and appointing him sole executor. In the event of Henry’s death, Carter
Lee was to inherit Anne’s estate.

Some assurance of their future social security were the letters of in-
troduction given Lee to various dignitaries abroad. James Leander
Cathcart wrote to H. C. Nissan, Esqr., His Danish Majesty’s Consul
General at Algiers:

Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance & friendly regard, the bearer
Major Henry Lee, lately appointed Consul gen1 of the United States, resident at
Algiers, who from his rank, talents, & urbanity, will be an acquisition to the
society of the honorable exiles residing in the "Island of the West.” . . . Your
long residence in Barbary will enable you to give him such information of the
manners & customs of those demi-Barbarians, as cannot fail to be both useful,
& edifying to any stranger on his first arrival in a country where the manner
of conducting public business is so very different from what is pursued in all
civilized nations. . . .

P. S. Townsend of New York wrote to the Egyptologist, Jean Fran-
cois Champollion: "Should these lines ever meet you they will be com-
municated through my friend and fellow countryman Major Lee, Con-
sul General of the United States to the Barbary Powers. He is a son of
one of our most renowned warriors of the Revolution & is himself an
author, a gentleman of great literary taste & acquirements & besides a
warm admirer of your’s. He has solicited of me the honor of your ac-
quaintance & in presenting him to you I pray you to receive him as one
who comes at the foot of the Pyramids (the monuments of your glory
as well as of the Ptolemys) to offer you the homage of his respect & to
bear to you from me the assurance of mv unalterable esteem & friend-
ship.”

394

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

As Henry and his wife were making preparations to leave the United
States, his sister Lucy wrote him:

I hope you will be pleased with your residence at Algiers, & that you may
fulfil the duties of your Office with ability. I would also recommend to you, to
treat Ann with the utmost tenderness. It would be well to humor her Peculi-
arities if she has any, & then they would wear off. If I have said any thing
offensive, you must forgive me for it, as be assured the best motives dictate,
what I have said — It is painful for me to bid you farewell, as human life is un-
certain, & we may never meet again, should it be the case, I hope the balance
of your life may be spent in a way to promote your own happiness & that you
may be Prosperous & successful in all your undertakings. . . .

Remember me affectionately to Ann, for whom I shall always entertain the
kindest feelings — And now my dear Brother, I must bid you farewell, hoping
it will please God to bless & Preserve you; You are going a great distance, &
we may never meet again. If so tho we cant help it, the reflexion that we are
both unfortunate presses on me & makes me feel more at bidding you farewell
than I thought I should — the subject is too painful to dwell on, therefore I
will say no more, but still remain —

Your affectU Sister —

L. Carter.

Major Henry Lee,

52 Broadway, New York.

Just before they sailed came this last word of the family in a letter
from Carter, ''Geo:-town,” August 6, 1829 — the news of the breaking
up of their home:

Mildred & Robert left me today on a visit to Ann [Marshall] — the furniture
is to be sold next Tuesday, & I am left by myself to reflect on how melancholy
it is that there will be no longer a roof under which we can be gathered at our
home. This happening too at the very time of your departure seems to com-
plete the overthrow of that domestic happiness which after all the heart ap-
pears most to rely on. Friends after friends walked out of the house yesterday
in tears, & I could hardly retain mine. However, it is not only "like leaves on
trees” that "the race of man is found.” Like the trees themselves, when trans-
planted from their groves or when their companions are cut away, we put out
our lateral branches & form around us a comfortable shade. . . .

Goodby

Yours ever

C. C. Lee

As consul general of the United States of America to the Barbary
Powers, Henry Lee now entered into a new period of his stormy career.
The fact that he had no illusions about his grandiloquent title, or about
Algiers and Morocco, doubtless helped in his and his wife’s adjustment
to the bizarre and even menacing world awaiting them. Added to every

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

395

discomfort in living and office quarters was the continual fear for per-
sonal safety experienced by all foreigners who were Christians or Jews.
Lee found that he could not even walk on the streets unarmed, and the
house he secured had to be turned into a veritable arsenal. Murders of
Frenchmen and Jews by the natives were everyday occurrences. One
crisis gave rise to another. Time and again Anne was in a state of
utmost terror.

Lee rather relished being thus placed on his mettle and recalled his
father’s tactics during the Revolution when with a group of ten men in
the Spread Eagle Tavern Light-Horse Harry Lee had held the British
General Tarleton and two hundred men at bay. This is evident from his
letter of April 24, 1830, to Carter:

. . . Our situation here is becoming quite critical. The Turks and Arabs
are preparing to oppose the French armament which is expected to descend on
this continent in about 3 weeks. My colleagues not being at liberty, or not
having opportunity to leave here (being consuls for Algiers merely) I did not
feel capable of deserting them — nor as a military man of leaving my port at
the approach of war. Mfs Lee, faithful and true as ever, refused to separate
from me, although Comre Biddle sent in two ships to take us to Europe, prefer-
ring danger with me to safety without me; and we are now with the other
Christian families taking such measures as seem calculated to keep us safe from
the impending conflict.

I persuade myself we shall escape — but where so many & such multitudinous
savage tribes are to be collected no positive calculations can be made as to their
doings or deportment. If the French, as is probable, are successful, despair may
make the savages destructive, and if they are victorious insolence may render
them equally dangerous. But I shall abide the issue — we have a strong house
I have 6 muskets, 6 pistols & my Tennessee Rifle, & I think I can shew them
the Spread Eagle scuffle over again.

Write to me my dear brother. The moment this war between the cross and
the crescent is finished I will write to you.

Y.r afte brother

H. Lee

Ann is pretty well & engaged in writing to her grandmama & Aunt Rose. She
sends her love to you and will write next time.

Lee appears to have represented his country admirably. He and his
wife became great favorites in the little colony of foreigners and, as
surviving letters show, they made steadfast friends. The Virginian
introduced the game of whist at their club. The Algerian pets they ac-
quired, among them an antelope, a wild boar and a donkey, made the
American consul general especially popular with Teddy and Emmv
Mathias, children at the British consulate.

396 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OE THE LEES

Apparently it did not once occur to Henry Lee that the United States
Senate would not confirm his nomination. The post was so remote, un-
civilized, and undesirable. He had given efficient and uncomplaining
service for nearly a year. For ten years he had followed a self-respecting,
hard-working and honorable course. He had made his peace with his
wife and was trying by every means within his power to meet his finan-
cial obligations as every surviving record shows. In facing the conse-
quences of his act fairly and squarely, he had endured a persecution that
would have broken a man of less courage. But reject him the Senate
did. The bad news reached him not long after the "Spread Eagle scuf-
fle” about which he wrote Carter.

Although the proceedings in the executive session of the United States
Senate were secret, "many of the Senate Executive acts were such as
could not be concealed,” says Parton. "A large number of the nomi-
nations were opposed, and several, upon which the President had set
his heart were rejected, no less than twenty-one Senators voted against
the confirmation of Henry Lee, among whom were six of Gen. Jack-
son’s most intimate friends and most decided partisans.” The names of
those twenty-one men Lee must have read with sickening dismay, for
among them were those he had counted his best and most loyal friends
in Virginia and Tennessee.

But he was not wholly without defenders. The men of Westmoreland
called a meeting and on April 27, 1830, signed an address to President
Jackson prepared by Richard T. Brown:

To his Excellency Andrew Jackson, President of the United States

We have viewed with feelings of concern the rejection, by the Senate, of the
nomination of our countryman Major Lee as consul general to Algiers. What
circumstances unknown to the public have influenced the decision of that hon-
orable body we are unable to say, but we cannot help believing that their virtu-
ous indignation has been grossly abused by the most exaggerated statements
and malicious invectives.

Educated in as strict a moral code as his most vindictive persecutors, we
equally condemn one circumstance of his life, but we do not consider it a gener-
ous policy or a Christian virtue to pursue forever with unrelenting ferocity the
unfortunate victim of a single act of human passion. We were gratified at your
nomination of Major Lee to a foreign station, as a means of bringing into
public service and consideration his acknowledged talents & noble qualities
which, though sullied with a stain, would have been an ornament to his coun-
try, and we deeply regret that your generous intentions toward an unfortunate
man have been unhappily frustrated and converted to his ruin.

With sincere wishes for your personal wellfare and the successful operations
of your administration we are, &c &c — -

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

397

Of this address President Jackson said that it was consoling to him
and honourable to Lee. Lee wrote to Brown: "this verdict of my coun-
trymen is impressed with a greater moral force and sinks deeper in the
heart even than a decree of the Senate. ”s

One of the principal weapons against Lee was the presentation in the
Senate by John Tyler of a series of letters alleged to have been written
by Lee to a Doctor Mayo. Of these letters Richard Brown wrote Tyler,
April 27, 1833:

I happened to be in Washington about the time of the action of the senate
on this subject and from the vast number of misrepresentations which I then
heard in relation to a correspondence which had been carried on between Majr-
Lee, and a Doctor Mayo, I was convinced that it had been submitted to the
senate in a garbled state or with gross mistatements. On a former occasion the
whole of that correspondence had been left with me for my perusal for an
object which it is needless to mention, but with a motive far more creditable
than the one which induced its exposure before the senate, and tho’ I have not
now a perfect recollection of its particulars, it left on my mind no impression in
regard to Majr- Lee unfavourable either to his honor or his feelings. One of the
charges, which I heard urged against him, was that his whole course towards
the unfortunate subject of that correspondence originated in the most sordid
& mercenary feelings of avarice and was directed by the base and despicable
means of cunning. There is one act of Major Lee’s life which his warmest
friends do not wish to palliate or excuse, stript of the falshoods and exaggera-
tions with which scandal and malice have enveloped it, it still remains a mis-
fortune to be regretted and condemned, but to the charge of being actuated by
selfish and mercenary motives, there is no man less obnoxious — I have been
intimate with him from his youth and can safely say that as far as his means
extend I have seldom known a more generous and honourable man in all
pecuniary transactions. His poor neighbors the objects of his kindness, remem-
ber with gratitude his acts of charity & humanity. . . .

Another letter, written by Major William B. Lewis, Jackson’s un-
official adviser, throws some light on the subject. Dated from Wash-
ington, March 11, 1830, it is addressed to Col. L. C. Stanbaugh of Penn-
sylvania, and is quoted by Parton:

Yours of the 15th has been received, and, as stated, the nomination of Major
Lee has been rejected by the Senate. Though very much to be regretted, yet it is
no evidence of the President’s want of popularity in that body. Major Lee’s
own connections were the cause of his rejection.

You have no doubt heard of the unfortunate affair relative to his domestic
relations; which however, on account of deep and sincere repentance all the
good and liberal minded were disposed to forgive. Not so with his connections.
They pressed the subject upon the Senate in such a manner as to compel Lee’s

sLetter from H. Lee to Richard Brown, November, 1833.

398

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

own friends to vote against him. It does not in any manner affect the adminis-
tration, as the responsibility of the nomination must rest upon those who recom-
mended him; but it must deeply wound his feelings, & prove, I fear, greatly
injurious to his future prosperity in life. . . .

That was the point. His future official career was irreparably ruined
by his own connections. Furthermore he would not now be enabled to
send Carter the funds to finish paying his debts or to aid Carter’s own
move to New York, as he had planned to do. Lee did not know until
later that Andrew Jackson was silently standing by; that C. H. Love
of Mansfield was seeking for him some appointment not subject to
confirmation by the Senate.

Commodore Porter was appointed to succeed Lee in Algiers. Lee
evidently took the humiliation and defeat with the courage his father
would have had him show. His chief concern was to protect his wife
from anxiety: "I never knew a want or a sorrow that he could avert
from me,” Anne wrote in a letter to Major W. B. Lewis. "I never knew
any of his embarrassments until they were over, for he would never tell
me anything that he thought might give me pain.”

The Lees made preparations to leave Algiers in August, 1830 —
whither bound they did not know. Perhaps, they first thought, they
would go to England. St. John, Lee’s British colleague in Algiers, was
eager to have his two delightful American friends meet his father, "Gen-
eral The Honble FredT St. John, Ades, near Lewes, Sussex.”

Augt 8, 1830

My dear Father —

Major Lee the American Consul Gen1- here, the son of the Gen1- Lee who was
the great friend of Washington, & himself the most intimate friend of Gen1-
Jackson is the bearer of this letter — He has been my most intimate friend here,
& is a most sensible & well thinking man — he is anxious to see as much of
England as he can. He has a wife with him a very nice person, & no children.
I wish you would invite him for a few days to see you as I wish him to receive a
favorable impression of our feelings toward his country, & as he has been here
in all this war you will find his company agreeable.

He will inclose this to you, & you can write to him in return.

Ever your affect

ThSd John

Octavius Mathias of the British consulate — father of the children
Teddy and Emmy who adored Major and Mrs. Lee — said:

"A thought has just struck me that as you are going to England and
of course bv Dover, ... I have four spinster sisters (do not be fright-
ened) living there — I shall enclose a letter to them which you will send

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

399

on your arrival, desiring them to call on Mrs- Lee, they will introduce
you to one of my brothers in the Artillery who is now quartered in
Dover and will be happy to show you over the fortifications which are
well worth your inspection.”

It must have been reassuring to Lee a few months later to have his
friend’s further word: "How terribly we miss you at the Club, in fact we
have no whist now, on Club night we have dancing instead. Once a
week we have Pic-nic parties with the children and go over to the other
side, or on to the beach to dine — and never one has yet passed without
our regretting your absence. I am not talking 'blarney’ when I say I be-
lieve that no arrival in Algiers could possibly give anyone of us greater
pleasure than yours would do. I trust we may yet meet again, it shall not
be my fault if we do not on any reasonable opportunity offering. . . .
All the children unite both individually and collectively with me in
every expression of esteem and affection for Mrs Lee and Yourself.”

From Algiers, however, the Lees sailed, not for England, but for
Italy. Their happy experiences there and in Paris are described by Anne
in her letter written from Paris, April 26, 1831, to Carter:

My dear Carter,

I love you very dearly, and think of you very often — although this is the first
time I have written to you since I left America — . . . I had really some excuse
for not answering the kind letter I received from you at Algiers — for I was
then too miserable to do any thing — but now we are no longer in danger of
being murdered by the Arabs I am altogether another person. We have spent a
delightful winter in Italy — that beautiful Italy — where nature and art have lav-
ished their richest gifts. Naples and its environs are enchantingly beautiful —
but Rome stands alone in point of interest. It is so noble, so magnificent in its
solitude and desolation and then there are so many fine things to be seen there,
ancient and modern. I think Venice interested me more than any other place
except Rome. It seems so strange, so wonderful to see a City with all its proud
domes and towers rising out of the Sea — 'where man seems left alone to
struggle with the Ocean’ as Madame de Stael says in Corinne. One of the
most surprizing things is the complete silence — one can hardly imagine oneself
in a great City when there are no Carriages of any sort no animals. We lived
on the Grand Canal and near the Rialto — but we never heard a sound from
without except the splashing of the oars or a cry from the Boatman as the
gondolas glided to and fro. It is the most melancholy place you can imagine.
The Gondolas add very much to this impression— being all black and very like
a Hearse. We went in a gondola around the City and to the Lido — and to the
other adjacent islands. Lord Byron gives a very perfect idea of Venice for I
was quite familiar with it before I saw it. I read Marino Faliero & the two
Foscari and the notes with great interest after I had been in the Palace of the
Doges — in the Prisons—seen the Bridge of Sighs — (for you cannot now stand

400

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

on it as his Lordship did) — and stood on the spot where Faliero was beheaded
and saw the black Curtain suspended before the spot which should have been
occupied by his picture in the Council Hall. . . .

I do not find myself so well in Paris as when I was in Italy — although I had
rather be here than go back to America — except for the happiness of meeting
you again — my dear brother — who seem almost the only friend I have there.
I shall return very unwillingly — but I endeavour to make myself contented
with thinking I shall be still with my dear Mr. Lee and to make that my happi-
ness. There is a great deal to interest one in Paris. The Public walks and gar-
dens— the Tuileries — Luxembourg — Jardin des Plantes — Champs Elysees &c
are just now very beautiful. It is very fine those beautiful trees & masses of
Foliage in the midst of a great City. We have seen a great deal but not all that
we should see yet — for the weather has been exceedingly bad. . . .

Charles Turner, I have taken a fancy to because he reminds me of you — par-
ticularly in laughing. He is often with us and his friend young Mr Mason &
they are to go with us tomorrow to Sl Cloud — and next week to Versailles.
Turner thinks himself very economical — so we are to go with him today to a
Restaurant where we get a dinner of 3 courses and the Dessert for two Francs.
You would be surprised to see what an economist the Major has become and
will you believe it — he keeps an exact account of every sous we spend — indeed
every one thought we did wonders in Italy to spend so little as we did — consid-
ering how long we were there and how much we saw. Here at first we stoped
at one of the best Hotels — [’illegible'] — where we were nicely fixed and lived
superbly but we found it too expensive. We then took furnished lodgings and
had our meals sent from a Restaurant — we have also tried dining at a Restau-
rateur’s and breakfasting at home — but the cheapest plan we find is a Table
d’Hote where we pay 4 Francs each — for wine — Coffee — liquers — besides a
very nice dinner — & we have too "une Societe choisee” — It seemed very odd to
me at first going out to dine in this way — but I am now used to it & do not dis-
like it. I believe Mr F wrote you that the immortal Sally Digges had returned
to the U. S. and I find that I am very much better without a femme de Chambre
than with one. You have no idea what a relief it is to me to have no little
black Imp to scold — for that was almost a necessary consequence of having one
— for Sally I have really a great regard. She has had a great deal of suffering
in going with me to Algiers — from the two long Voyages and the trouble there
— through all of which she [illegible] well. . . .

I am very anxious to see England. I fancy Mr Lee is writing to you — and it is
time I should finish this very long letter. I am afraid Mr Lee is not well — he
has had a cough ever since February — but I hope (mutilated) and Doctor says
the warm weather will cure it. I hope you will write to me if we should remain
long enough — and believe me always my dear Carter

your affectionate Sister

A. R. Lee

Once settled in modest lodgings in Paris, Henry Lee began his work
in earnest, with Anne as his amanuensis. He had a number of projects

Anne McCarty Lee. Portrait by an unknown artist.

402 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

in view: a novel, a history of Napoleon, The Siege of Algiers, Observa-
tions on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, etc. His niece, Lucy’s daugh-
ter Charlotte, who had married into the British diplomatic service and
was now Mrs. Featherstonhaugh, wrote him from Philadelphia:

"Mamma received a letter from you a short time since, from which
we were all glad to hear that you and Aunt Anne were both well. We
have heard from several persons that you were very much pleased with
Europe, and that you intended establishing for yourself a literary char-
acter, there, by writing the siege of Algiers. . .

Charlotte’s three bright and attractive sisters — the fascinating Ma-
thilde especially, who "married her old beau, Tom Willing” — were de-
voted to their Uncle Henry and he to them. Catharine Mildred, Lee’s
youngest half sister, now Mrs. Edward Vernon Childe, was living in a
fashionable quarter of Paris. But it appears that Major Lee and Anne,
who lived frugally and simply, seldom saw her. Of his family, his
brother Carter alone seemed to realize the actual situation. Generous,
kind Carter — with troubles enough of his own in the way of finances —
went without necessities over and over to aid Henry and Anne. Carter
sent practically all the money he made to Henry and Anne. "People
thought he ran through with everything,” says Carter’s daughter Mil-
dred. "He let them think it.”

In Paris as in Algiers, and everywhere, through the greater part of
his life — except those careless years from 1816 to 1821— Henry Lee’s
thoughts turned toward his father. One of his first acts after arriving in
Paris was to make arrangements for marble head and footstones for
his father’s grave at Dungeness. He wrote the inscription:

Gen. Henry Lee

°f

Virginia

obit

23 th ■ March 1818
Aetat 63

The stones were then shipped to Cumberland Island.

Among Lee’s prospective works, the Observations were completed
first and sent in manuscript to Carter to place. No publisher, however,
was interested. Finally James Thomson of New York, whom Carter had
conferred with, wrote the Major: " . . . as a last resort, myself and a few
other Gentlemen have determined to publish it & make over to you all
the profits that may accrue. The work is now in press & will appear in
about 3 weeks, our object being to have it in Washington before the

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

403

adjournment of Congress. The proof sheet will be Carefully attended
to, & a copy of the work shall be sent to you as soon as issued.”

Thomson knew, as others did, that Henry Lee had been left hopelessly
stranded abroad. The want he was facing, his efforts to be self-support-
ing and to keep Anne from knowing the perilous state of their affairs,
and the bitterness engendered by the Senate’s action — all this had its
inevitably devastating eff ect upon his health.

At this time he wrote a letter for John Tyler’s benefit. It was addressed
to Richard Brown, but written for the perusal of Mr. Tyler. Frequentlv
quoted in published references to Lee’s act, it has become generally ac-
cepted as his personal explanation. It operates greatly to his detriment.
Fairer to himself and more indicative of his character and feeling about
his transgression, is his hitherto unknown letter to Jackson of eight
years before, quoted in these pages. In the Tyler letter, however, Lee
makes this final observation: "I can venture to affirm that had I been in
Mr. Tyler’s situation . . . & he in mine, my conduct would have been
very different from what his has been. I should have censured & la-
mented his offence, censured it, because it was wrong & mischievous &
lamented it because I should have supposed it was lamented by himself
& all his connexions. But its punishment I should have left to the sure
but silent operation of family resentments and domestick feeling, — the
only tribunals on this world, which while punishing the transgression,
can reclaim the culprit.”

Henry Wise wrote of Lee at this time: "Alas! Alas! that such a man,
so gifted, should have had to write as he did . . . from Paris . . . that
'everything had turned to the bitterness of ashes on his taste.’ ”

It is no wonder the Observations were bitter. Full of resentment
against Jefferson’s attacks on his father, Lee declaimed against him as he
had done in The Campaigns of 1781 against Johnson’s criticisms. The
only result of the book was a fresh crop of enemies.

In his next literary work Lee turned to another subject — and began
exhaustive research for his biography of Napoleon. The first volume,
appearing simultaneously in London and Paris, was entitled:

THE LIFE OF
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
down to

The peace of Tolentino and the close of his first campaign in Italy.

BY HENRY LEE, OF VIRGINIA
Gratifying returns came to Lee in the way of complimentary reviews

4 04 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

and criticisms and enthusiastic letters from friends at home and abroad.
From Richmond, Virginia, J. B. Chapman wrote:

My dear Major —

As soon as your Life of Napoleon arrived I read it with great delight — It is
admirably written. The engagements are as well described as if you really were
a Sailor. I should have shut up the book with unqualified satisfaction, had you
treated the Memory of Sir W. Scott with a little more delicacy. . . .

Another Virginian, William Beverley, said to Lee:

The enviable faculty you possess of the happy & [illegible] appropriate
expression of graceful thoughts & honourable sentiments must exhort the
admiration of readers of taste & sensibility, & rivet every link in the chain of
pre-existing good will & friendship. The numerous & varied attestations to
your excellence in that way, which are sure to follow the publication of your
work, I trust will so invigorate your imagination & stimulate your industry, as
to encourage you to leave large legacies of litterary wealth, instruction & amuse-
ment to the young that are now living, & to those who are to succeed them.
. . .You are in the vigour of your maturity, & destined I hope for long life. . . .

Prospects for the future were promising at last. Lee continued to work
unremittingly although his health was beginning to break. The second
volume of the Life of Napoleon was almost finished. "It is beautifully
written,” Anne said. Three-fourths of the manuscript was sent to press
during the last week of January, 1837, when suddenly Lee was taken ill.
There was an epidemic of influenza in Paris. "The King had a touch of
it on the 27th; the military hospitals were crowded with patients from
the garrisons of Paris, and the physicians themselves were no better off
than others.”

Henry Lee died on January thirtieth after an illness of but five days.
Early in February, 1837, Gali gnani’ s Messenger carried this notice:
DEATH OF MAJOR HENRY LEE,

Author of the Life of Napoleon, &c.

This distinguished American has fallen a victim to the epidemic which now
pervades the capital. He expired on the 30th January, after much suffering,
from a short illness of complicated influenza.

In the prime of life, and in the full vigor of a well cultivated intellect, the
riches of which have already contributed to the literature of the age, his untiring
assiduity has been suddenly arrested in the promising career in which his hope-
ful friends, with so much pleasure, saw him fast advancing.

While letters lose in him a zealous votary, his numerous friends, who know
the greatness of soul which characterized his actions, the suavity of his temper,
his modesty and urbanity of manners, will mingle their tears with those of a dis-
consolate widow, and long regret that "that hand which was as firm in friend-
ship as it was strong in battle,” has been so soon palsied by the cold grasp of
death.

405

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

For many days after Henry Lee died Anne was completely prostrated
and unable to write even to Carter. Late in March, 1837, she wrote to
Major Lewis in Tennessee:

The death of my dear husband was so sudden, so unexpected, for I was
hardly made acquainted with his danger, before he was no more. He had a
violent influenza which lasted only 5 days; (it terminated in inflamation of the
lungs) and as he was subject to bad colds neither he nor I was aware that his
illness was so serious. He was delirious from the moment he became worse to
the last and so completely exhausted that he did not notice me, or any one about
him. So that the blow fell on me with overwhelming force. I thought I could
never survive him; . . . how cruel to be cut off before he had completed a
work on which he had bestowed so much labour and research and which might
have immortalized his name. ... I received a note from a London editor the
other day in which he says it will be long before another is found with his in-
formation and talents for such an undertaking. . . .

The remains of my dear husband are interred at Mont Martre without an
enclosure, or even the plainest slab to mark the spot. This can not be of use to
him, but it is a consolation necessary to me to have his grave respected. There
never was a better heart beat in a human bosom than his, nor a more noble and
generous spirit bowed down by neglect and mortification. Dear and beloved
friend, thou art now at rest, and I trust no sorrow can approach thee that thou
endured upon earth.

Anne had been her husband’s closest friend and comrade from the
time of their reunion. She had found the strength to overcome her own
weakness and to stand by Henry Lee with generosity and heroism
throughout those bitter years in America when he was an outcast and
in the face of danger and almost certain death in Algiers. Her admira-
tion for him, amounting to reverence, and the profound depth of her
unfaltering devotion are shown in every letter she wrote. Her situation
was pitiful.

It is evident from all the surviving letters that her husband’s atone-
ment was complete, that Anne forgave his wrong doing and loved him
so deeply that his death caused her own.

As the months passed she was unable to overcome the prostration that
followed the shock of his death. Then, too, she found herself, unac-
customed as she was to handling money, in a bewildered state. There
was no money with which to meet the apothecary’s bill or the long over-
due bills for groceries, meat, bread, wine. ”... alas how different is
my situation,” she wrote Major Lewis. "To be left all at once penniless,
on the world. All the little debts of my poor husband must be paid and

406 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

all together they amount to upwards of a thousand francs; that is what
he owed to trades people. There is another debt more considerable with
Rothschilde who advanced him three thousand francs re the security of
Mr. Brent, for the expense of printing the second Vol. of his work. You
know my dear Major Lewis, it is my duty and for the sake of my hus-
band’s memory to endeavour all I can to arrange his affairs.

"I can live on very little now, but I must have something; I can live
comfortably here on much less than I could in the United States. All my
habitudes are of this country. I have been here so long, and the idea of
returning there without him is horrible to me. I can have no satisfaction
in associating with those who disliked and persecuted my dear husband
while living, and who may probably rejoice that he is no more. Now, I
can never be happy anywhere, but much less so there than here. . . .
Is it surprising that I cannot endure the idea of quitting the spot where
he lies: It would be like tearing me once more from all I love. . . .”

Anne wrote to Carter asking him to come to Paris and arrange his
brother’s affairs; "No one can do it as well,” she said, "or have the same
interest in his concerns.” She thought of Carter as "my nearest friend
and the one to whom I must look for counsel and protection.”

Meanwhile Carter was making every effort to go to Anne and bring
her back to the United States.

Lucy Grymes Carter, who had been informed of Henry’s death by
Charles Turner, wrote Carter that she was so anxious and wretched
about Anne that she had not a moment’s ease. Of her brother’s death
she said:

Indeed Carter it was the greatest shock — I ever received as I believed and
hoped we should meet again — it was my intention to have gone next spring to
Paris on purpose to see him and just at the moment he had established a paper
in Paris and sent his second volume to the press and might have hoped after all
his struggles and vicissitudes to have had a better prospect of happiness he is
suddenly snatched away in the prime and vigor of life — Indeed when I reflect
on the troubles and mortifications his Noble and generous nature has been
subjected to for the last sixteen years my heart is pained beyond expression — I
hope my dear Carter you will feel it your duty to do all you can to cheer and
comfort his poor wife who I hear from a letter from Washington has been
left almost pennyless in Paris.

The prospect of Carter’s going seemed at one time almost certain as
Anne’s letter to him of May 20 shows:

My dear good brother,

I dared not indulge the hope of seeing you here; it was too much happiness.
Judge then of the comfort and consolation your letter gave me. Come then my

Lucy Grymes Lee, Mrs. Bernard M. Carter, daughter of Light-Horse Harry Lee and his
first wife, Matilda Lee; from the original pot trait by an unknown artist. Now in the
possession of Mrs. Morgan La Montague.

408 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

dear Brother if indeed it be possible. Your presence will do a great deal for
me. If you knew what a miserable state of despondency I have been in you
would not wonder that the very idea of undertaking the voyage to America
alone filled me with despair. I was so entirely dependent on my dear husband.
I shed many tears over your letter but they were not the bitter tears to which I
had been accustomed. I do not deserve so much kindness. I do not deserve
such a friend. May God bless you for all your goodness to me. Your letter
gave me the only comfort and consolation I have felt since my awful calam-
ity! . . .

She discussed in detail the tangled business matters she was trying to
unravel; explained that of the 3,000 francs advanced by Rothschild to
her husband on account of the Napoleon biography, he had drawn but
1,300; mentioned that she had a set of the Moniteur in 53 volumes which
might be sold for 900 francs. Again she entreated Carter to join her in
Paris:

I should be so comforted to have you arrange his affairs, and see about his
book that they are finishing — if it be properly corrected. . . . Your presence
may give me the courage and strength I so much want and which I shall need
to be cast out alone on the world. Oh if you knew how I dread that voyage
across the Atlantic! and to leave too my dear husband’s grave without a stone,
without an enclosure to mark the spot, where repose his loved remains — the
last resting place of all I most loved on earth. ... he little knew to what
bitter sufferings he was leaving his unhappy wife. But he was assured, too, I
well know, that if I should be so miserable as to survive him, in you I should
find a friend and protector. He spoke to me on the subject not long before his
death. His attachment for you was unbounded, — he said, reading to me from
one of your letters, "see what a brother I have!”

She spoke of another tragedy in the family — the sudden death in
Munich from cholera of their sister Mildred’s youngest child — a bright
and promising boy. Anne closes her sad letter: "I must now my dear
brother bid you Adieu. I hope not for long — if my earnest desires and
prayers can bring you before many weeks ... I forgot to tell you I have
a dear little dog that was a great favourite of your poor brother — for
three years that little creature never was separated from him night or day.
The grief of the poor animal has been terrible and to this day it seems
to expect its dear master will return, — poor little Cora. I have been
dreading a voyage to America may kill her. She is very beautiful and
delicate & has been taken great care of. I am very much attached to her
and am afraid to think how I should grieve to lose her. ...”

Carter was unable to finance the journey. From Henry Lee’s estate
and from the residue of Anne’s once large properties, which had yielded
so lavish an income during the years prior to 1821, not enough could be

CONSUL TO THE BARBARY POWERS

409

extracted for Anne’s daily expenses — she who had once been the richest
heiress of Westmoreland and mistress of Longwood and of Stratford
Hall!

Her stepfather, Richard Stuart, of Cedar Grove had died some years
before. His son, Richard Henry Stuart — Anne’s half brother — inherited
the old King George estate and was then living there with his wife —
Julia Calvert — and their family. Carter conferred with Stuart about
some plan for Anne’s permanent support. But Stuart had many respon-
sibilities of his own, a large and increasing family to provide for: it
would give him much happiness he said if Anne would come and live
with them at Cedar Grove "if it would suit her.” He seemed a little
doubtful. Or, he suggested, in Fredericksburg she might find "two good
rooms & excellent board for $300 [per year].”

Had Anne’s kinspeople but communicated her needs to her sister
Elizabeth, then living in plenty at Stratford, the opportunity and the
privilege of sharing with her would doubtless have been, for Elizabeth,
an answer to prayer. But so far as it is known, no one told her of
Anne’s destitution.

Finding even a small pension in Paris too expensive for her, Anne
moved to Passy. Here she found a cheap, furnished apartment in a
small house on the rue de la Pompe, next to one occupied by a French
locksmith, Louis Gerard and his family.

Anne was utterly alone and friendless except for her little dog. On
October 10, 1839, she wrote Carter: "I am very unhappy and always
alone at Passy.” Carter must have urged her repeatedly to return to
Virginia for Anne writes "I am far from strong enough for the voyage
at present. My rent is paid in this house at Passy until the first of March.
... I cannot tell you how much I am grieved and disappointed at not
seeing you so soon as I had hoped, but I am very sure there is a necessity
you should remain in the United States. I trust however this necessity
will not be of long duration. I am quite, or have been all the Summer
and Autumn, a cripple with the rheumatism, hardlv ever able to quit
my bed. I am now better, but very weak, & suffering, as you may observe
by my writing — my hand trembles so. My dear Carter I have now but
500 francs with Mr. Brent. When that is gone what is to become of me
if you cannot send me immediately some money. Oh how I hate to tor-
ment you but I have no friend on earth but you — my brother, has never
fulfilled his promise. It is certain that I spend more, being sick, and
unable to give the proper attention to my affairs, than I otherwise
should. ...”

410

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

This is the last letter from Anne in Carter’s papers. Two other records
were forwarded him through the American consulate in Paris. One is
an ungrammatical, almost illegible letter written in French in a childish
hand on a fragment of thin blue notepaper. It is directed to M. Carter
Lee, Virginia, by the French girl who came to take care of the dying
American lady, so lovely and kind, but so poor, alone and sad, with only
"le petit chien” with her. The second document is a copy from the
register of the death records of the Commune of Passy, near Paris, for
the year eighteen hundred and forty:

On the twenty-eighth of August, eighteen hundred and forty, at noon. Death
certificate of Anne Maccarthy, widow Lee, housewife, died at her temporary
residence in Passy, Number 13 bis, Rue de la Pompe, yesterday evening at five
o’clock, native of Virginia, United States of America, forty years of age. Having
lived in Virginia, the Christian names of her deceased husband and father and
the Christian name and surname of her mother cannot be given. By the affidavit
of Louis Gerard, locksmith, twenty-seven years of age, living in Passy, Number
13 bis, Rue de la Pompe, neighbor, and of Auguste Boulabert, employed,
forty-two years of age, living in Paris, Number 18 Rue Saint Marc, Feydeau,
friend. Sworn to by us, Louis Simeon Gaspard, deputy-mayor of Passy, in com-
pliance with the civil law, after being assured of said death, in acknowledg-
ment hereof, the said deponents have jointly signed with us in the presence
of the deputy-mayor.

Signed: Louis Gerard, Boulabert, and Gaspard, deputy-mayor.

A certified copy of the original affidavit executed by us before the deputy-
mayor.

At Passy, the thirty-first day of August, eighteen hundred and forty.

Gaspard.

CHAPTER XXI: THE FIFTH MASTER OF STRATFORD

WIFFIAM CFARKE SOMERVILFE, who had purchased
Stratford from Major Henry Fee in 1822, was a romantic
figure of the early nineteenth century. His career as an army
officer, beau, diplomat, continental traveler and soldier of fortune pre-
sents a panorama of many changing scenes.

William Somerville was born in 1790 in St. Mary’s County, Mary-
land. His home, Mulberry Fields,1 is standing today practically as it
was built in the middle of the eighteenth century, on a terraced hill far
back from the Potomac, and almost directly across from Stratford.

According to the Memorie of the Somervilles,2 by James, Eleventh
Ford Somerville (edited by Sir Walter Scott) the original Somerville
estates in England and in Scotland were in Staffordshire and in Ayrshire.
John Somerville of Maryland was a descendant of James Somerville,
who emigrated to America in the reign of George II and was one of the
early planter-merchants of St. Mary’s County.3 John married Miss
Clarke, daughter of Colonel George Clarke, of Bloomsbury, St. Mary’s
County, about 1753. Their son William Somerville was born Decem-
ber 25, 1755, and became one of the most extensive planters of the
Potomac region. In 1788 he married Anna, the daughter of Captain
Vernon Hebb, of Porto Bello, St. Mary’s County, member of the Council
of Safety during the Revolution. Their three children were: William
Clarke Somerville, Henry Vernon Somerville, and Elizabeth, who be-
came the wife of George Plater, eldest son of Governor Plater of Mary-
land. The Plater estate of Sotterley thus became connected with the
Somerville family.4

William Clarke Somerville was educated at the College of William
and Mary, Class 1809. Before he was twenty-one, he became engaged
to Sarah Conyers of Richmond. She was one of the victims of the fire
which destroyed the Richmond theatre December 26, 1811.

A letter written by Somerville to his sister-in-law, Rebecca (Tiernan)
Somerville, some four years afterwards, is characteristic of his tempera-
ment, as it is of the times:

xDeed Book 24, p. 346, Westmoreland County Records. Mulberry Fields is owned today by
Colonel W. Garland Fay, United States Marine Corps (retired).

"Compiled in 1679; edited and printed in 1815 in two volumes; Edinburgh.

3The founder of the family in the British Isles was Sir Gualter de Somerville, of Normandy,
France, who crossed the English Channel with William the Conqueror in 1066 and received lands
for services rendered. His descendant, Sir Thomas Somerville, of County Roxburgh, in 1430
was created Lord Somerville in the peerage of Scotland.
xNow owned by Herbert L. Satterlee of New York.

[411]

412 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

My dear Sister:

The gloom of solitude sat so heavily on my spirits after you and Henry were
gone, that I took my departure for Richmond, where I have been retracing with
melancholy pleasure the scenes that delighted the morning of my life.

But those scenes are changed to me — then, my heart was full of hope and joys
and expectation; but it is now nothing but the "Waste of churlish winter’s
Tyranny.’’ At that time the world in prospect seemed an Elysium to me, and
fancy decorated it with a thousand charms; but, alas! reality has sadly dissi-
pated the illusions of hope. I have nothing of an interesting nature to com-
municate to you; my time has been imployed in visiting the friends of my youth,
and my spirits are too much depressed to speak of myself without appearing
melancholy. . . . Major [Henry] Lee, has been ulogizing you in Richmond,
and will, of course, become a favorite. . . .

His natural grief over the loss of his fiancee was perhaps intensified
by the Byronic melancholy then sweeping the world. In unstudied
moments Somerville seems to have been of a happy disposition. He
evidently had a delightful and refreshing personality, and, so his kins-
woman, Elizabeth Lambert Hebb, says, "won the esteem and the hearts
of all who knew him.” Saint Memin’s portrait of Somerville shows a face
of youthful frankness but decided strength. Like young Major Henry
Lee, who was ever one of his closest friends, Somerville had a rich, in-
tellectual equipment, and "possessed various accomplishments,” as Ap-
pleton’s Encyclopedia notes, and "was striking in personal appearance.”

After the war of 1812, in which he served as an officer, he was re-
ferred to as "Captain” or "Major.” A toast he gave at Grignon’s in New
Orleans at a Eourth of July dinner, sometime after the close of hostili-
ties, went the rounds of social circles at the time: "The United States:
the Nation that gave us birth: May she never violate the rights of others,
nor fail to vindicate her own.” In Washington Somerville was among
the favorites of the town. His large fortune doubtless augmented his
popularity. One of the influential men of the older group who liked
young Somerville was the eccentric Englishman, Thomas Law, real
estate promoter and one of the builders of "The brick capitol.” (Law’s
wife was Eliza Parke Custis, granddaughter of Mrs. Washington.)
When Somerville decided to make the grand tour in 1817, Law gave
him a letter to his sister, Lady Rumbold.

Somerville had numerous letters to families of distinction in England
and on the Continent. He visited his titled relatives in Scotland and
England. In Paris he attended "the grand Ball” given bv the Duke of
Wellington and in Venice he met his idol, Lord Byron. For the Ameri-
can it must have been a memorable experience.

William Clarke Somerville: from the original portrait by Saint Ale min.

414 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Notwithstanding the constant round of visits and entertainments, he
found time to write his Letters from Paris on Causes and Consequences
of the French Revolution? Jared Sparks’ comment on this work was: "I
have been especially delighted with the graphic and sprightly manner
in which you narrate the recent political events in France.”

But, according to his kinsman, James William Somerville of Claren-
don, Virginia, the contact that most influenced Somerville’s future
course was his friendship with General Juan d’Evreux, Commander of
"the Foreign Legion of Liberation.” The sons of the old American
Revolutionaries had much the same feeling for Liberty their fathers
had. They were still near enough to the Revolution to take fire from its
embers: to drink toasts to its philosophy. Somerville was so sympathetic
to the cause of South American independence from Spain that he en-
listed in the army of Venezuela and left Paris for South America. He
eventually received the Commission of Lieutenant-Colonel in the army
of Venezuela, which was then one of the United States of Colombia.
Later the hardships of the campaign permanently undermined his
health. A grant of ten thousand acres of land was given the young
Maryland soldier by the Venezuelan government in recognition of his
services. Thus were crowded into the period of some three or four years
innumerable contrasts of life and activities — the seeing of foreign coun-
tries, new people, adventures and experiences of a lifetime.

In the early spring of 1822 he returned to the Potomac, sold Mulberrv
Fields, and, when approached by Major Henry Lee, bought Stratford
Hall and "settled down.” He must have been comfortably relieved to
be at home once more and able to work quietly at his own desk. But for
his continued ill health the next two or three years of his life were a
quiet and pleasant interval.

Although Stratford was in Somerville ownership from 1822 to 1828,
Major William, as his friends called him, occupied the Great House for
less than three years. In that time, according to an unpublished bio-
graphical paper written by Miss Hebb, "he . . . lived at Stratford with
great elegance and wrote here Essays by a Citizen of Virginia Family
documents and Westmoreland Courthouse records show that he made
extensive and costly improvements to the mansion and outbuildings, in
the grounds, gardens, and the farms; and also that he purchased from
Henry Lee all the original furniture and furnishings from the time of
Thomas and Hannah Lee, including part of the Stratford library, maps,
a portion of the Lee silver and a number of the pictures.

'Printed in Baltimore, 1822 ; 390 pages.

THE FIFTH MASTER OF STRATFORD

415

Meantime, when in New Orleans, Somerville had met and fallen in
love with Cora Livingston, daughter of the great jurist, Edward Liv-
ingston, who later became Secretary of State in Jackson’s cabinet. They
became engaged to be married, and planned the wedding for the sum-
mer of 1825.

His book done, Somerville could not long remain in the backwaters.
He must out into the current again. As a Whig he was an ardent
supporter of John Quincy Adams. The President appointed him Charge
d’ Affaires to Sweden and Norway on March 9, 1825. According to
Adams’ Memoirs: ". . .it was also agreed that Mr. Somerville should
be allowed to postpone his departure for Sweden till July or August, to
accomplish his matrimonial project with Miss Cora Livingston, at New
Orleans, his salary not to commence till he shall start upon his mission.”
Because of illness, however, William Somerville was unable to go
to New Orleans for his wedding or to Sweden. The wedding was post-
poned and he lost the diplomatic post to Sweden and Norway.

Late that August the President decided to offer Somerville a new
post, that of Political and Commercial Agent to Greece, and urged him
to go as quickly as possible, for he felt there was much information to
be collected and transmitted for the interests of the United States. As
Adams says in his Memoirs, he was concerned over the changes taking
place in the politics of Europe, especially in Greece, where Somerville’s
hero, Lord Byron, had but a short while before given up his life for the
liberation of that country. Adams wanted Somerville to go on the
frigate U. S. S. Brandywine, on which Lafayette was returning after his
long visit to the United States. The President conferred personally with
Captain Morris of the ship to see if suitable accommodations could be
arranged. In his Memoirs he says: "I told Morris I had special reasons
for wishing that Somerville should go in the frigate, and he said that
good accommodations for him should be found or made.”

Of his talk at this time with Lafayette, Adams says:

[August] 1825,

28th. Conversation with General LaFayette after breakfast. I take every op-
portunity to dissuade him from having any participation in revolutionary proj-
ects in France. He says he will go quietly to La Grange; that he is sixty-eight
years old, and must leave revolutions to younger men. But there is fire beneath
the cinders. I spoke to him of Somerville, and my intentions; upon which he
said he would give up his own berth to him if necessary.

“Edward Livingston was a brother of Chancellor Livingston and of Colonel Henry Beekman
Livingston who married Nancy Shippen.

The gardens were revived.

THE FIFTH MASTER OF STRATFORD

417

On September 7, Lafayette and his suite, with young Somerville of
Stratford Hall (who on that day received his commission to Greece)
left Washington, boarding the little Potomac steamer which was to take
them to the Brandywine. Flags dipped and guns boomed a farewell
salute to the nation’s loved and honored guest.

The frigate lay at anchor some twenty miles down stream, off Mount
Vernon. She made her start under full sail and passed beneath a bril-
liant rainbow, which reached from the low green banks of Maryland
across the river to the wooded Virginia hills. The Potomac landings
that they passed were familiar places to Lafayette. The sad change in
the appearance of Mount Vernon made him melancholy. They sailed
by George Mason’s Gunston Hall; then, Freestone Point at Leesylvania,
the early home of Light-Horse Harry Lee whom Lafayette had known
in the Revolution as he had known Lee’s Stratford cousins. Over fifty
miles further down stream came Bridges’ Creek, where Washington
was born, and the McCarty plantation, Longwood. A little farther
back from the high cliffs of the Potomac was the Great House of the
Lees, now the home of Lafayette’s fellow voyager, Somerville. Only
the slaves and a caretaker were left at Stratford.

The owners and occupants of Stratford had long been associated with
France. In the middle of the eighteenth century Richard Henry Lee
had named his part of the Stratford plantation Chantilly. At the begin-
ning of the Revolution Arthur Lee had been instrumental in securing
from France the first financial aid for the colonies and later in negotiat-
ing and signing with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, the Treaty of
Alliance. Then came Light-Horse Harry Lee’s association with Lafavette
— both young men then and stirred with the same idealistic ardour.
Ludwell Lee’s service as Lafayette’s aide-de-camp followed all through
the Virginia campaign to the field at Yorktown. In Philadelphia, La-
fayette and his associates had been welcome guests of Alice Lee and
her husband at Shippen House and at that very time their daughter
Nancy had become engaged to the French diplomat, Louis Guillaume
Otto, Comte de Mosley.

Now Stratford’s fifth master, William Somerville, was to link the
Virginia plantation anew with France.

The Brandywine rode down stream, into the Chesapeake, and out to
sea. The passage took nearly a month. The frigate pitched and tossed:
"she sails well by the wind,” Somerville wrote his friend Henry Clay,
then Secretary of State, "but rolls exceedingly before it.” Ill when he had

418 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

come aboard ship, Somerville did not improve during the rough voyage.
Lafayette treated him as if he were his own son, with such considerate
care that Somerville, who had always admired the great Frenchman,
came to love him devotedly.

After their arrival in Paris, Somerville continued ill. Each day the
United States Minister to France, Hon. James Brown, called to see
him. Many times Lafayette came up to Paris from his chateau, La
Grange — not far distant — to visit his young American friend. The
ancient feudal fortress, hereditary castle of his wife’s family de Noailles,
stood in a park, which Lafayette particularly loved. There he had
planted many American trees, vines and flowers, among them magnolias,
Virginia creeper, and the rose, Gloire de Dijon. He wanted Somerville
to come to La Grange, "to wait better times,” he said, "in the bosom of
our family.”

But Somerville was harassed by his feeling that he must fulfill the
mission entrusted to him by his government. Time and again he made
futile efforts to rise from his sick bed, and continue his journey to
Greece. The American Minister entreated him to remain in Paris, for
the journey to Greece meant first a rough drive by carriage to Naples,
then further drives, over bad roads, for at least three weeks. But Som-
erville determined to go. On December 20, 1825, he drew up his will,
in which he bequeathed under the clause "all my property real and
personal,” Stratford and its furnishings, and the greater portion of his
other properties to his brother, Henry Vernon Somerville of Blooms-
bury, near Baltimore. Bernard M. Carter of Shirley, Virginia, was one
of the witnesses to the will. A strikingly interesting clause reads:

. . . That as the existence of Slavery is an evil I deprecate & wish to mitigate
as far as is consistent with justice to my brother, that he shall set free my negro
slaves after they shall have served the periods hereinafter specified. All those
over thirty five when they shall have attained the age of forty two — all between
thirty & thirty five when they shall have attained the age of forty two — all
between twenty five & thirty when they are thirty six — all between fifteen &
twenty when they are thirty two — and all under fifteen when they shall (the
males) attain the age of twenty eight, & (the females) twenty five. N. B. Jacob
that I bought is not to be included in the above, but in justice to the others
must pay partly for himself, he must pay the sum of one hundred & fifty dollars
to my brother, and this I suppose he is prepared to do, as he wanted to pay
100$ in part before I left home

It is my wish & request of my Brother that he shall see that the negroes are
never ill treated, & that he shall render their situation as comfortable as he can.
. . . This will has been most hastily written, and therefor my Brother must

THE FIFTH MASTER OF STRATFORD

419

interpret it literally. ... I am so weak from bad health that it is painful for
me to write. ... 7

On the second day of January, 1826, William Somerville, with his
physician, Dr. Lucas, and his valet, left Paris for Nice. Some one hun-
dred miles from Paris, at Auxerre, he was obliged to rest. There he told
his physician that in case of death his body was to be sent to the Chateau
de La Grange. There was no place, he said, other than Lafayette’s home
with which he would have forever connected his own last mansion, the
grave. Somerville gave these instructions to his physician on Janu-
ary fourth and also wrote a message to Lafayette, which he directed to
be placed in his coffin. After midnight, he died peacefully in his sleep.

The rest is told by Count Louis de Lasteyrie, great-grandson of La-
fayette: "One American ... in Lafayette’s own time, came on a lonely
pilgrimage to La Grange; he was greeted with respect, but of that greet-
ing he took no heed. He was a silent guest, nor has he left any record of
his impressions; in fact he was dead before starting on his journey. He
arrived quite simply one fine . . . [winter] morning, in his coffin, ac-
companied by a letter which said: 'William Somerville, having the
greatest admiration for the General Lafayette begs he will bury him in
his land at La Grange.’ This, being against the law could not be done,
but Lafayette bought the whole of the small cemetery of the neighboring
village and laid the traveler from over the sea to rest in his ground in-
deed, though not under one of the many American trees at La Grange
itself, of which the enthusiastic wanderer had probably dreamed.’"

Shortly after William Somerville’s death and burial Lafayette wrote
his brother Henry Vernon Somerville in Baltimore:

La Grange, January 20, 1826.

My dear Sir: —

It is to me a very painful, but sacred duty, to be among the first to convey the
dire information of your having lost an excellent Brother, and I, a much valued
friend, who on the last moment has honored me with an additional and most
precious mark of his affection.

You know that during our passage, and since our arrival in France, the
health of Mr. Somerville has been declining. However anxious he was, to ful-
fill his Honorable Mission, he found himself forcibly detained in Paris; nor
could he even meet our invitation to await better times in the bosom of our
Family, and when his physician yielded to his importunities to let him proceed
to the South, every Hope to save him had been given up.

An account of the lamentable events will be transmitted by the proper au-

^Certified copy of Last Will and Testament of William C. Somerville from Office of the
Register of Wills for Baltimore City.

sMary King Waddington. Chateau Life in France.

420

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

thorities. I shall confine myself to his expressed intention to entrust us at
Lagrange, with the care of his mortal remains. The affecting wish had been in
a recent interview, mentioned with a most friendly earnestness, and was re-
peated to Dr. Lucas on the very day of his death.

Amidst the deep feelings of affection, no time was lost, and while my son
remained here to watch over the precious charge, I hastened to consult with
the Minister and other officers of the United States in Paris, on the method by
which duty, respect and affection towards him might best be gratified — their
joint opinion being that the Cemetery where two of my grandchildren are de-
posited, was the proper place.

But our enquiries respecting the Religious persuasion to which Mr. Som-
erville belonged, having proved fruitless, we concluded to avoid everything
that could give uneasiness to any American creed.

The respected Remains, which Charles Barnet had from Auxerre, deposited
in my House, was from there accompanied by the Consul, Mr. Barnet, and by
Mr. Hawley of New York, by the Mayor of this Commune, several invited
neighbors, a mourning concourse of people, and both of us, to a grave next to
that where lies my Son’s daughter.

Although, uncertain as we were of his Religious persuasion, we made it a
point of delicacy towards his family not to wish entering a Roman Catholic
Church; we thought there was in one case an act of propriety, and no im-
propriety in every other case, to accept the offer of the Minister of the parish,
to meet us on the ground and say those prayers to which no Protestant can have
an objection.

We are taking measures to become, by an exchange, sole owners of the whole
spot; thereby annexing it to the farm; when a grave, a plain monument, and
an inscription will consecrate our affection and gratitude.

And now, my dear Sir, it remains for me to apologize for those details,
which, painful as they are, it has appeared necessary to lay before you and other
members of the family. Should anything have been wanting unintentionally, in
our performance with the advice of the American public officers here, what we
have thought most consonant to your lamented Brother’s and your own views;
at least there has been no deficiency in our feelings; and in our eagerness on
the deplorable occasion to do for the best.

Be pleased to accept the affectionate condolences and high regard of two
sympathizing friends, my Son and myself, to whom my whole family beg to be
joined.9

Lafayette.

To Somerville’s letter in reply Lafayette answered:

My dear Sir: —

Your affectionate answer has afforded me a deep, though melancholy gratifi-
cation. I shall ever lament the loss of your excellent Brother.

Ever shall I remember with gratitude the wish he had expressed to connect
his last Mansion with the Habitation of La Grange, and the assent you have
been pleased to give to our arrangements.

"The Tiernan Family of Maryland.

THE FIFTH MASTER OF STRATFORD

421

In consequence of an exchange made with the inhabitants of the Commune,
under the sanction of the local and superior authorities, the Burying ground has
become our family property, and a part of the estate; so that nothing can here-
after trouble us in the possession and management of it.

That matter, I beg, you will kindly leave to us, and have the Honor to en-
close a copy of the inscription in both languages.

I beg, my Dear Sir, you will accept the best wishes and grateful regard of
your sincere Friend.10

Lafayette.

WILLIAM CLARKE SOMERVILLE

Citizen of the United States of
North America, State of Maryland,
Representing the Government of his
Country on a diplomatic mission,
died at Auxerre, January 5, 1826.

He had expressed a desire to be
interred in the family burying ground
of La Grange.

This wish was gratefully fulfilled
January 19, 1826, by his friend. Gen-
eral Lafayette.

Citoyen des Etats Unis de 1’Ameri-
que du Nord Etat de Maryland, Re-
presentant du Gouvernement de son
pays, pour une mission diplomatique,
il mourut a Auxerre le 5 Janvier,
1826.

II avait exprime le desir d’etre in-
hume dans le lieu de Sepulture des
habitants de La Grange.

Ce voeu fut accompli avec Recon-
naissance le 19 Janvier, 1826, par son
ami Le General Lafayette.

'"ibid.

CHAPTER XXII: ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS
OF STRATFORD

^rrlHE Great House stood tenantless for several years after William
Somerville died. Only the caretaker and a few slaves remained
on the plantation. Stratford reverted to "the still and quiet,” to
use Alice Lee’s phrase, being far removed from the controversies and
litigation over its ownership beginning then to take place in the courts
of Montross and Fredericksburg.

From a court order in the Westmoreland records of November 27,
1826, it appears that delay in the administration of the estate gave rise
to a misconception of the facts:

William C. Somerville having been dead intestate as far it appears to this
Court for upwards of three months and none of his kindred having applied
for administration on his estate it is ordered on the motion of Henry D. Storke,
a creditor, of said Somerville that administration on said estate be committed
to the Sheriff.

Fully a month before this order, notice "to expose to sale the tract
of land called Stratford,” had been advertised in the town’s newspaper
by the Marshal of the Superior Court of Fredericksburg, and also at the
front door of the Westmoreland courthouse. Henry D. Storke of Leeds-
town bid in the property. The Marshal submitted his report announc-
ing the sale to the Court, record of which is:

This cause was this day further heard upon the papers formerly read and
the report of the Marshall of the Sale of the tract of land &c. called Stratford
made pursuant to the decree of the 7th day of May 1827 to which there is no
exception.

The Court approved of and confirms the said report. . . . That the Marshall
of this Court who made the sale under the decree aforesd. do convey to the
Pltf. H. D. Storke who is reported the highest bidder therefor at his costs the
land and premises called Stratford aforesd. according to the description in the
said report specified and it appears from the said report that after crediting
the proceeds of the sale upon the aforesd. decree of 7th May 1827 there remains
a balance due thereon to the Pltf., the Court doth further decree that the Deft.
Lee pay to the Pltf. the sum of $949.17 with interest &c. from March 24, 1828
until paid.

Meanwhile Henry Vernon Somerville, to whom Major Somerville
had left the property, living at his country estate, Bloomsbury, near
Baltimore, was totally unprepared for this calamity to his interests.
Four years previously his brother had bought Stratford for $25,000,
reserving $3,000 to take care of any deficit that there might be in Henrv
Lee’s guardianship account with Elizabeth McCarty. The property was

[422]

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD 423

at that time subject to the mortgage which Richard Stuart had required
Henry Lee to give to him and others as security for his guardianship ac-
count:

Know all Men by these present that I Henry Lee of the County of Westmore-
land am held and firmly bound unto Richard Stewart of County of King
George, who was Security of the said Henry Lee for the guardianship of Eliza-
beth McCarty, an orphan of Daniel McCarty dec’d in the just and full sum of
$20,000 to be paid to said Richard his Exs. &c.

To which payment well and truly to be made I bind myself my heirs &c.
firmly by these present Sealed with my Seal and dated this 26th day of March
1821.

The condition of the above obligation is such that whereas the said Henry
Lee is indebted to the said Elizabeth upon an unsettled account as guardian of
the said Elizabeth heretofore appointed by the County Court of Westmoreland
and the balance due upon the said Account is to be hereafter ascertained accord-
ing to Law, Now this condition of the above obligation is such that if the above
bound Henry Lee his Exs. &c shall well and truly settle the said Account of
his the said Lee’s guardianship when thereunto required and for securing the
payment of any balance which may be ascertained to be due upon the said
settlement from the said Henry Lee to the said Elizabeth and for indemnifying
said Richard for his Securetyship for said Lee as guardian as aforesaid, if he
the said Henry shall well and truly execute with all proper Solemnities a deed
of Mortgage to said Richard of his the said Henry’s estate called Stratford with
such covenants and in such form as may be advised by Councel learned in the
law Securing upon the whole of the said estate the payment of such balance
when ascertained to be due from the said Henry to said Elizabeth for the
guardianship aforesaid and if the said Henry in case the said Estate called Strat-
ford shall be insufficient as a Security for the balance ascertained to be due on
the said guardianship Account shall execute other and further Security in the
premisses of the said balance due upon said guardianship account from him to
the said Elizabeth.

The above obligation to be void else remain in full force and virtue.

Test — H. Lee.

Recorded March 26, 1821 — Jos. Fox C.W.C. Deed Book 24, p. 151 —

"Lee’s statement to William Somerville that the $3,000 would take
care of any deficit was undoubtedly made in good faith.”1 But this sum
was not sufficient. Hence the decree of the Superior Court of Freder-
icksburg.

In addition to his large cash payment Major Somerville had spent
several thousands in improvements to the mansion, grounds and farms.
Henry Somerville vigorously protested the court’s decree in his state-
ment of August 29, 1827, to his attorneys, Harrison & Scott of Balti-
more:

1Lucy Brown Beale in personal letter to the author.

424

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Gentlemen:

Having become unfortunately interested in the purchase of the Stratford
Estate from Maj. Henry Lee and the property as you know being bound in the
case of McCarty vs. Lee for the amount of the chanceller’s decree in favor of
the plaintiff, I have to request that you will be pleased to apply to the chancel-
ler for a modification of the decree. Five years ago my Brother became the
owner of this property and paid money on it to the full amount of its value
less three thousand dollars, which by agreement with Maj. Lee was to remain
in his hands to cover the recovery in question and which he was induced to
believe would be amply sufficient for this purpose.

Since the estate has been in our possession the buildings have been improved
and by judicious expenditures saved from hasty decay and the land tilled and
systematically laid down in artificial grasses with a view to their general im-
provement and advantgages.

Under these circumstances I am perhaps the only sufferer and if the present
rigid decree should be insisted on I must be sacrificed. I call the decree a rigid
one because it amounts to the full value of the property in question, and be-
cause it requires a cash disposition of it.

To offer real estate in Virginia or indeed any where else for cash at this
junction of pecuniary embarassment thro’ out the Country is fraught with cer-
tain destruction to the owner who has not the funds to advance, for which the
legal claimant comes forward as the only efficient purchaser and has it in his
power to secure the full extent of his lien on the property at perhaps less than
half its value.

The object of the Law and I am sure of the Hon. Bench to whose wisdom and
liberality I wish you now to appeal is justice between men, and under the
peculiar circumstances I have detailed, it is most evident the hearing of the
present decision will be necessary to me.

Therefore I have to pray that the chanceller will be pleased to order a credit
sale of the property, say at one, two and three years with one fourth of the
amount in Cash and also a moderate extension for a few months of the period
of sale that an opportunity may be had of realizing something like the value
of the property which under the present decision would be impossible.

My case is a hard one and I have to request that you will advert to the real
nature and State of the circumstances in your petition and they being thereby
known, I feel persuaded that my prayer will be found consistent both with
the liberality and justice of the Bench.

The modification I ask for cannot conduce to the injury of the plaintiff’s
interest, but only have a probable tendency to secure mine. If Major Lee will
not assume the expense attending the petititon I shall hold myself accountable
for the same to you — be pleased to write me immediately and believe me
Gentlemen yrs —

Somerville’s counsel directed his petition:

To the Honble the Judge of the Superior Court of Chancery for the District
of Fredericksburg — :

The petition of H. Somerville respectfully sheweth that at the last term of

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OE STRATEORD

425

this HonhR‘ Court Your Honor pronounced a decree which is herewith ex-
hibited in the case of McCarty vs. Lee and others in which your petitioner was
a party Deft.

By which &c. among other things your Honor decreed a sale of the land and
premises called Stratford described &c. in the proceedings in the said cause for
ready money unless the same should be relieved by the payment to the plaintiff
of a large sum of money —

Now your petitioner respectfully represents to your Honor that he does not
in relation to the said land and premises stand before the Court as a debtor to
the compln’t but stands in the character of devisee of the unfortunate purchaser
of the aforsaid land and premises of the aforesd. deft. Lee to whom before he
had notice of the plaintiff incumbrances upon the land aforesd. he had paid a
large part of the purchase money and your petitioner in that way must sustain
very great loss and on that account your petitioner conceives he is entitled to all
the compassion of the Court and to its utmost latitude of indulgence — certainly
to much more than if he stood before the Court as a mere debtor, that the
land and premises decreed to be sold are very valuable and very large contain-
ing near .... acres of land with extensive and costly improvements, that con-
sequently if sold for ready money the whole must be sacrificed and lost to your
petitioner for a sum greatly less than the value— owing to the present extreme
scarcity of money.

That from this circumstance, if the land be sold for ready money it will be
in effect be offering them to the compl’t upon their own terms. No purchaser
will be able to compete with them, because few or none will be able to advance
at once so large a sum.

Your petitioner therefore prays that the cause aforesd. may be reheard and
the decree so altered and modified as to direct the land to be sold upon time
and your petitioner will ever pray &c.

H. Somerville by his Council
Scott & Harrison.

The terse comment in the records: "Petition of Somerville lodged in
office Sept. 1, 1827, but not acted on,” shows that he failed to receive a
sympathetic hearing. The next episode in this train of unfortunate
events for the Somerville family, in which the sale of Stratford is further
confirmed, is shown in the indenture:

This Indenture made and entered into this 30th day of June 1828 — Between
John Stanard, Marshall of the Superior Court of Chancery for the Fredericks-
burg Dictrict of the one part and Henry D. Storke of the County of West-
moreland of the other part —

Whereas by a Decree of the Superior Court of Chancery pronounced on the
7th day of May 1827 in a cause depending therein between Henry D. Storke and
Elizabeth his wife Pltf. and Henry Lee and Ann R. his wife Richard Stewart,
Wm. S. Jett, McKenzie Beverly, Townshend S. Dade and others Deft, it was
amongst other things decreed and ordered that unless the Deft. Henry Lee
pay to the Pltf. the sum of $9,647.92 with interest at the rate of 6% per annum

426

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

on $8,643.61 from Dec. 3rd. 1824 until paid within six months from the date
thereof that the said Marshall should after having advertised &c. expose to sale
the tract of Land called Stratford in said County of Westmoreland or so
much therof as might be necessary to the hightest bidder at public auction for
ready money and out of the proceeds of such sale after having discharged all
reasonable rate attending the same pay to the Pltf. the sum of $9,647.92 with
interest aforesd. and the costs of said suit and whereas in pursuance of said
decree the said John Standard, Marshall as a aforesd. (by Jas. A. Carter his
deputy) did on the 4th Monday in March 1828 at Westmoreland Courthouse
expose to sale by public Auction to the hightest bidder for ready money, the
tract of Land called Stratford in County of Westmoreland, having been adver-
tized in the "Virginia Herald” printed in town of Fredericksburg &c. and
whereas at the said sale the said Henry D. Storke became the purchaser of said
tract of Land, he being the hightest bidder therefor — at the price of $11,000
dollars and whereas by an order of the said Superior Court of Chancery, May
20, 1828 the said Marshall is directed to convey to the said Henry D. Storke
at his costs the Tract of Land aforesd. This Indenture therefore Witnesseth:
that the said John Stanard, Marshall as aforesd. for and in consideration of
the premises aforesd. and of the sum of $1.00 paid by said Henry D. Storke &c.
hath bargain & sold to said Henry D. Storke his heirs &c. the tract of land
herein before described.

July 8, 1828—

The aforegoing deed from John Stanard, Marshall of the Superior Court of
Chancery for the Fredericksburg District to Henry D. Storke having been ac-
knowledged by the said Stanard before John Chew and Anthony Buck, Jus. for
the Corporation of Fredericksburg and certified according to law was this day
presented in my office which together with a copy of a decree of the sd. Superior
Court of Chancery annexed thereto is admitted to Record — John Graham C.
W.C. (Deed Book 26, p. 78.)

Thus was Henry D. Storke, as the highest bidder, awarded "the land
and premises called Stratford.”

Lee, then in Nashville, wrote Carter, in June, 1828: "Storke bought
Stratford under the mortgage for 11,000, which is really 11 times more
than it is worth — but it cuts me off from any further paymt from Somer-
ville.” Under the circumstances and in view of all the court records, this
comment is inexplicable, Somerville being the one person to suffer grave
injury and loss.

The Henry D. Storke of these records was the husband of Elizabeth
McCarty.

After Elizabeth returned to Cedar Grove she had lived in seclusion
for six years. According to her Westmoreland friends and neighbors,2
her marriage to Henry Storke was supposed to have been arranged for

2Mrs. W. M. Walker and Mrs. Richard H. Stuart.

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD 427

her protection by Richard Stuart, her stepfather and guardian. The
actual circumstances are not known beyond the fact that the wedding
took place in 1826. Elizabeth did not permit even her marriage to
change the custom of wearing heavy mourning in public, which she had
adopted in her nineteenth year as a permanent symbol of her contrition.3
Her atonement lasted for fifty-eight years — until her death. After the
marriage Storke and his wife went to live at the McCarty plantation,
Longwood.

The move to Stratford from Longwood occurred in 1829-30, shortly
after Storke acquired the property through Lee’s unpaid debt to Elizabeth
and the accumulated court costs. It was probably a few months after the
original Lee furnishings, purchased by William Somerville from Henry
Lee some years before, had been removed by his brother and the rest sold
at auction.

Elizabeth McCarty Storke lived at Stratford for fifty years. Because
of her long period of occupany and ownership, her life becomes an
important part of the nineteenth century history of the Great House.
It is a strange, sad drama. Lor, notwithstanding her isolation, Elizabeth
gave such devoted service throughout her lifetime to the care and heal-
ing of sick children and babies that her name in Westmoreland County
is loved and honored today and she is remembered as a friend of those
in distress. Lrom the time she returned to the Great House, she made
a study of the medicinal properties of herbs. The herb garden which
she planted and cultivated with her own hands was for half a century
an important part of the Stratford gardens. Elizabeth McCarty prepared
balms, ointments, teas, and medicines of all descriptions — particularly
those for ailments of children.

Neighbors recall seeing her medicine closet and medicine chests "full
of herb medicines which Mrs. Storke made herself.”

Elizabeth McCarty was a woman of means. She had inherited half of
the McCarty properties, estates, negroes, and stock. That she brought
to Stratford her share of the McCarty plate, household, and kitchen
furniture, carriages, horses and stock of every description, farming im-
plements, etc., is shown by her will. Among these McCarty belongings
were large stores of beautiful china, expensive glassware, and a fine
library. The china and glass were the wonder and delight of the few

3Statement to the writer from Miss Ward of Bladensfield, Warsaw, Va. : Mrs. W. M. Walker
of Montross : Mrs. Susie Reed of Westmoreland; Airs. Richard H. Stuart of Alontross ; Airs.
Charles E. Stuart of Alexandria and Bermuda.

The path leading to the herb garden.

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD 429

women visitors of after years. When Elizabeth and Henry Storke moved
into the Great House there were no Lee furnishings in the mansion or
the outbuildings. A number of changes in the interior of the house were
made by Mrs. Storke.

The Great House was practically the second home of Elizabeth’s kins-
people, the Stuarts of Cedar Grove, with whom she was related through
the second marriage of her mother, Margaret Robinson McCarty, to
Richard Stuart, son of Reverend William Stuart. Reverend William
Stuart, rector of old St. Paul’s parish in King George County, Virginia,
from 1749 to 1796, was the son of Reverend David Stuart of Preverness,
Scotland, and his wife, Jane, daughter of Sir John Gibbons, Governor
of the Island of Barbados.

Reverend David Stuart came to Virginia during the first decade of
the eighteenth century. Record of the interesting history of his family
is preserved in a vestry book of St. Paul’s parish. This traces the descent
of the Virginia Stuarts direct from James Stuart, son of King James V,
through his union with Margaret the daughter of Lord Erskine. From
his half-sister, Mary, Queen of Scots, James Stuart received the title of
Earl of Murray or Moray, which has been handed down through succes-
sive generations.

In Virginia, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the
Stuarts were connected with the Washingtons through the marriage of
Reverend William Stuart’s eldest son, David, to Eleanor Calvert of
Mount Airy, widow of John Parke Custis, son of Martha Washington
and mother of Nelly Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. Their
home was at Abingdon, Alexandria, and later at Hope Park and Ossian
Hall. Dr. David Stuart was an early commissioner of the District of
Columbia and also one of President Washington’s physicians.

Margaret (McCarty) Stuart died in 1808, leaving two Stuart children,
Margaret and a son, Richard Henry, besides her daughters Anne and
Elizabeth.

The principal events of interest to Elizabeth outside of the four walls
of Stratford were those of her Cedar Grove kinspeople: the marriage
in 1835 of her half-sister, Margaret Robinson Stuart — her mother’s
namesake — to Thomas Lomax, and Stuart’s building of the beautiful
brick house Panorama as a bride’s gift for his daughter; the destruction
by fire of the original homestead of Cedar Grove in 1836 and the build-
ing in its place of the stately mansion which survives.

The East Wing of the Mansion.

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD 431

Elizabeth’s devotion to her younger sister was centered, after Mar-
garet’s untimely death, upon her only daughter, Roberta Lomax, born
and reared at Panorama and Cedar Grove. Roberta’s marriage to her
cousin, Charles Stuart (son of Charles Stuart and grandson of the
Reverend William Stuart, rector of St. Paul’s) was an event of the early
1850’s. The five children born of this marriage were to Elizabeth like
her own. Roberta Lomax Stuart died in her early thirties and her aunt,
Elizabeth McCarty Storke, reared and educated her children. She was
especially devoted to the two boys, Richard Henry and Charles Edward
Stuart. To them she bequeathed Stratford and all her other properties.

Meantime Elizabeth’s half-brother, Dr. Richard Henry Stuart, had
become a successful physician and one of the largest landholders in
King George County. To him and his wife, Julia Calvert, were born
the six daughters who were spoken of as "the beauties of King George.”
They were constant visitors at Stratford. Among their friends and fre-
quent visitors were Mary, Mildred and Agnes Lee, daughters of Robert
E. Lee and Mary Custis. It was from Cedar Grove, during the war,
Mildred wrote her father of visiting Stratford. "The Cedar Grove Stu-
arts” play a large part in the history of this branch of the Lee family.
From one of Mrs. Lee’s letters it seems that the "Lee boys” also were
equally attracted to the "Stuart girls” of Cedar Grove: "Rooney has
gone down to Cedar Grove to see those girls who have quite bewildered
him, you know there are 6 of them, the youngest 14 and all sweet and
pretty.”

Henry Storke was the manager of his wife’s extensive properties.'1
From various court records it appears that Storke gave conscientious
and practical service in the legal and business affairs of Elizabeth Mc-
Carty and managed them in her interest. He was the legal owner of
Stratford from 1828 to his death in 1844. In his will, dated Sept. 13,
1843, he devised all of his property to his wife Elizabeth McCarty Storke
and made her the executor: "I Henry D. Storke of Stratford give to my
beloved wife Elizabeth forever the whole of my estate real and personal
mixed and any future increase of the servants to be disposed of in any
manner she may think proper.”5

Storke was probably buried in the graveyard of his own family estate
near Leedstown, the vault at Stratford having been in a ruinous condi-
tion since the late 1830’s.

4Mrs. W. M. Walker.

sDeed Book No. 31, p. 473, Westmoreland Court House.

The W est Wing of the Mansion.

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD

433

Shortly after his death, according to neighbors, the Stuarts came over
from Cedar Grove, with a number of their slaves, to help Mrs. Storke
remodel the gardens. For two weeks or more the Cedar Grove slaves
worked with the Stratford slaves. Old brick walls were torn down and
new ones built, roads and paths were changed, and the original gardens
of Thomas Lee completely obliterated to conform to the prevailing
standard of taste. The new driveway passed by the kitchen direct to
the front steps of the south entrance. A circle of roses outlined the
lawn in front of the north entrance.

Besides Elizabeth McCarty’s study of herbs and the "doctoring” of
children, she spent much time in garden work. She was also devoted to
music and to her books, and she was very religious. Every Sunday she
gathered the slaves together in the old schoolhouse and taught them the
catechism.6

"Sometimes in bad weather when Mrs. Storke could not drive to
church,” says Miss Ward, the daughter of Reverend William N. Ward
(the Episcopal minister of the church at Montross, when Mrs. Storke
was mistress at Stratford), "my father would go to Stratford and hold
services for her in the Great Hall.”

"Once when I was a child my father took me to see her and I spent
the night at Stratford. Mrs. Storke’s room was the large chamber in
the east wing of the house where General Lee was born. The night I
was there she showed me a secret door that led to Thomas Lee’s secret
stairway.”

On one occasion, sometime late in 1865, Rev. Dr. Ward also took
Minnie, another one of his daughters, to Stratford. She painted a pic-
ture of the south front of the Great House and sent it as a present to
General Robert E. Lee the first year he was in Lexington.

During the War Between the States, Stratford had a narrow escape
from destruction. A steamboat captain, Samuel Baker Folke, was com-
mander of the government boat, Wawasett, which ran on the Potomac
during the eighteen-fifties. At the outbreak of hostilities he was ordered
to burn Stratford. Mrs. Storke had frequently been a passenger on his
boat in her visits to and from Cedar Grove. Captain Folke became one
of her staunch friends, and his daughter, Mrs. Susie Reed, later was
deeply attached to her. Mrs. Reed tells the story:

"My father got orders to burn Stratford to the ground and burn every
other house on the lower Potomac. He knew Mrs. Storke well — as he did

“Statement of Charles E. Stuart to author.

434 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

most of the people from lower Maryland and Virginia shores who
traveled on the Wawasett. He could not see himself burning their
homes. Yet he was a Northern man and a Union sympathizer. He felt
there was nothing for him to do but to give up the government boat,
say nothing, but take his own boat and disappear. He sent for all of us.
I was a child thirteen years old then. We joined my father on his boat
and we all went secretly down on the Rappahannock to Farley Vale,
King George, not far from Fredericksburg — all excepting my two
older brothers, who were in the Union army. We hadn’t been there long
when we got word the boys were sick with smallpox. My father went
to them. They died, and he died, all within a few weeks of one another.

"At Stratford when Mrs. Storke lay ill in bed the Northern troops
came and drove away the slaves. They even took Mrs. Storke’s house
servant, Uncle Billy Payne. Mrs. Storke, sick as she was, was left alone
in the house. Uncle Billy begged and pleaded to be allowed to go back
to Stratford. Finally the soldiers let him go and he walked back a long,
long distance. He never left the place again.

"I always saw him when I went there in later years. But there were
not enough negroes then to take care of the gardens or the farms and
those that found their way there were a shiftless lot and lived off the
place but never worked any. When I saw Stratford the farms had not
been worked or the grounds cared for since the war. Since I was a child,
I had heard my father talk about Mrs. Storke— how friendlv and pleas-
ant she was. But I did not meet her until I married and came to live in
Westmoreland. The first time I visited her was in 1874. She took me
over every room in Stratford. Mrs. Storke always played and sang for me
every time I visited there, even though she was then over seventy years
old. She had perfectly white hair, short and curly. She was short and
very stout. She always wore white in the house and black outside. Her
bedroom and dressing room were in the southeast part of the house
where her nephew, Dr. Richard Stuart, later had his office and bedroom.
There was old, old furniture in the house, some of it very handsome.
There was ever so much china. I never saw so much anywhere. I re-
member especially the blue willow pattern that Mrs. Storke said came
from England. There were books in set-in bookcases in the hall. Mrs.
Storke seldom went anywhere but she was glad to have people come to
see her. I went there many times. She loved herbs and flowers. We used
to talk mostly about our gardens. The whole front yard on the river side
at Stratford was a circle of roses. Many of them had come from Europe.

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD

435

In going into Stratford then you drove in by the kitchen, right up to the
front steps, and got out there. There were two tall box trees bv the
smokehouse that had always been there. The first half of the kitchen
building was used as a laundry. Uncle Billy Payne was the butler and
house servant and his brother, Roderick, was the coachman.”

When Elizabeth Storke was stricken with her last illness, the Stuarts
came over to stay at Stratford to care for their kinswoman. She died
August 9, 1879, in the seventy-eighth year of her age.

With the close of her life ends the last chapter of an owner of Strat-
ford connected with the family history of the Lees. She was buried in a
small plot in the garden. Her grave is marked by a simple headstone,
and on the brick enclosure surrounding it is the inscription:

Here lies buried Elizabeth McCarty Storke

Owner of Stratford for 30 years from 1829 to 1879 . . .

By her will, drawn June 25, 1865, probated August 25, 1879, Strat-
ford was left in trust to her great-nephews: "I devise and bequeath to
my brother Richard H. Stuart my Stratford estate to be held in trust for
the benefit of Charles E. Stuart and Richard H. Stuart sons of my niece
Roberta L. Stuart, dec’d. and to their issue.” (Deed Book 41, p. 412.)

Codicil added March 30, 1868: "I impower my great Nephews Chas.
E. Stuart and Richard H. Stuart by last will or otherwise to dispose of
the Stratford estate.”

The Stratford estate was divided equally by the two Stuart brothers.
Charles Edward, whose home was in Alexandria,7 chose as his share the
major portion of the land (most of which he sold later to a lumber
company), and Richard took the Great House and outbuildings and
519 acres. After finishing a course in medicine in Philadelphia, Richard
returned to practice his profession in Westmoreland and make his home
at Stratford. He married Lydia Anna Marmaduke December 29, 1882.
Of their children two sons survive, Albert Stuart and Charles Edward
Stuart.

The Deed Books of Westmoreland record the facts about the succeed-
ing divisions, partitions and adjustments of the Stratford estate:

Deed of partition betwen Chas. E. Stuart and Ruth his wife of City of Alex-
andria of the 1st part and Dr. Richard H. Stuart of Stratford, Westmoreland
County of the 2nd part —

whereas by her last will duly probated in County of Westmoreland Court
Mrs. Elizabeth Storke did devise unto the said Chas. E. and Richard H. Stuart

’Charles E. Stuart was married, October 11, 1876, to Ruth Yeaton, daughter of William
Chauncey Yeaton of 607 Oronoco Street, Alexandria, Virginia.

The grave of Elizabeth McCarty Storke.

ELIZABETH McCARTY: MISTRESS OF STRATFORD

437

her estate known as Stratford — to be equally divided between them and whereas
said property has been divided by said parties each taking the share herein
described —

To Richard H. Stuart 519 Acres and which is bounded and described in a
plat and survey annexed.

To Chas. E. Stuart is allotted the remaining portion of the said Stratford
estate.

Recorded July 29, 1882. (Deed Book 42, pp. 342-3, May 31, 1882.)

Deed: Chas. E. Stuart and Ruth his wife of City of Alexandria deed to Rich-
ard H. Stuart of Stratford — - For sum of $2,500 all those three parcels of
ground in Westmoreland County and which forming a part of the Stratford
Estate became upon partition the property of said Chas. E. Stuart — 1st parcel
382 Acres, 2nd. 134 Acres, 3rd. 87 Acres. Deed with plat and survey recorded
Sept. 23rd. 1885. (Deed Book 46, pp. 41-2-3, June 30, 1884.)

R. H. Stuart of Westmoreland County deed to Lydia Anna Stuart — all real
estate and personal property except choses in action now owned by said R. H.
Stuart.

Recorded Dec. 28, 1903 (Deed Book 61, p. 225, Dec. 28, 1903.)

Deed: between Lydia Anna Stuart (the wife of R. H. Stuart) of Westmore-
land County to R. H. Stuart all the real estate and personal property referred
to and conveyed by the said R. H. Stuart to said Lydia Anna Stuart by deed
dated Dec. 28, 1903. (Deed Book 71, pp. 146-7, April 20, 1904.)

In November, 1919, Dr. Stuart drew up the following deed to Strat-
ford:

Deed between R. H. Stuart and Chas. E. Stuart his son — tract of land com-
monly known as The "Stratford Estate” and containing aggregate 1,123 Acres
— 1 rood — 1V2 poles being the same identical tracts of land which were con-
veyed to the said R. H. Stuart by a certain deed of partition between Chas. E.
Stuart and Ruth his wife and R. H. Stuart May 31, 1882 and by a certain deed
of Bargain and Sale from said Chas. E. Stuart and Ruth his wife June 30, 1884,
to R. H. Stuart.

Said deed from R. H. Stuart to his son Chas. E. Stuart is subject to the dower
right of Lydia A. Stuart wife of said R. H. Stuart and said grantor reserves his
home and residence at Stratford for and during the term of his natural life.

Recorded Aug. 25, 1924 (Deed Book 83, p. 500, Nov. 5, 1919.)

Doctor Stuart died in 1924 and was buried in the small graveyard in
the Stratford garden, close by the graves of his infant daughter and his
great-aunt, Elizabeth McCarty Storke. His son, Charles E. Stuart, since
elected Virginia state representative for Westmoreland, was the owner
of Stratford for ten years. On July 19, 1929, he sold the estate to the
Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Incorporated:

Deed: between Chas. E. Stuart and Clara D. Stuart his wife and Lydia Ann
Stuart, widow of Dr. R. H. Stuart, dec’d parties of the 1st part all of West-

438 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

moreland County, Virginia and the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Inc.
party of the 2nd part —

Sum of $240,000.00 in hand paid or secured —

1,104-28/100 Acres, being that portion of the Stratford Plantation in the
County of Westmoreland to wit: "Kentucky,” "The Mill Field,” "Turkey
Neck,” "The Bank Farm,” "The Mill Property” — also all that tract containing
519-25/100 Acres as described in a Deed of Partition from R. H. Stuart to
Chas. E. Stuart, July 29, 1882.

Said lands to exclude a 60 Acres parcel of land reserved by Chas. E. Stuart
and wife. The property hereby conveyed being the same, with the exception of
the 60 Acres thereof, as that embraced in that certain Deed dated Nov. 5, 1919
from R. H. Stuart to Chas. E. Stuart.

p. 294 Deed of Trust: on above property Recorded July 20, 1929. (Deed
Book 87, p. 290, July 19, 1929.)

The Great House of the Lees thus passed forever from private owner-
ship to become one of the nation’s shrines.

THE OWNERS OF STRATFORD ON THE POTOMAC

1651 — 1929

1651-1661

1661-1684

1684-1700

1700-1716

The Clifts

Nathaniel Pope
Thomas Pope

Richard Pope and John Pope

Johanna Pope (widow of Thomas Pope and mother of
Richard Pope and John Pope)

1716-1718:

Nathaniel Pope (son of Thomas Pope and Johanna Pope)

1718-1751

Stratford Hall

Thomas Lee (son of Richard Lee of Westmoreland
County)

1751-1775

Philip Ludwell Lee, I

1775-Prior to 1780: Philip Ludwell Lee, II

1780-1789

Elizabeth Steptoe Fendall (widow of Philip Ludwell Lee,

1789

Matilda Lee and Flora Lee (daughters of Philip Ludwell
Lee, I, and Elizabeth Steptoe)

1789- 1790:

1790- 1818
1818-1822

General Henry (Light-Horse Harry Lee) and Matilda Lee
General Henry Lee

Major Henry Lee (son of Matilda Lee and Light-Horse
Harry Lee)

1822-1828

William Clarke Somerville (son of William Somerville of
St. Mary’s County, Maryland)

1828-1844

1844-1879

Henry D. Storke (of Leedstown, Virginia)

Elizabeth McCarty Storke (of Pope’s Creek, Westmore-
land County)

1879-1882

Charles E. Stuart and Richard H. Stuart (sons of Richard
Stuart of Cedar Grove, King George County)

1882-1903

1903- 1904

1904- 1919
1919-1929

Richard H. Stuart

Lydia Anna (Marmaduke) Stuart

Richard H. Stuart

Charles E. Stuart (son of Richard H. Stuart and Lydia A.
Stuart)

1929-

Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Incorporated.

[439]

THE LEES WHO LIVED AT STRATFORD FROM
1729-30 TO 1822

1. Thomas Lee3 (1690 — 1750)

2. Hannah3 Ludwell Lee (1701 — 1749)

3. Richard4 Lee (1723 — died unmarried)

4. Philip Ludwell4 Lee (1726-7 — 1775)

5. Elizabeth Steptoe Lee (1744-5 (?) — 1789) — wife of Philip Ludwell

Lee

6. Hannah4 (1728 — 1782) — m. 1748 Gawen Corbin of Peckatone

7. Thomas Ludwell4 Lee (1730 — 1778)

8. Richard Henry4 Lee (1732 — 1794)

9. Francis Lightfoot4 Lee (1734 — 1797)

10. Alice4 Harriet Lee (1736 — 1817)— m. 1760 in London, England,

William Shippen the Younger of Philadelphia.

11. William4 Lee (1739— 1795)

12. Arthur4 Lee (1740— 1792)

13. Matilda6 Lee (1763-4 — 1790) — elder daughter of Philip Ludwell

Lee, first wife of Light-Horse Harry Lee

14. Flora3 Lee (1765-6 — 1796?) — second daughter of Philip Ludwell

Lee, first wife of her cousin, Ludwell Lee of Chantilly and Alex-
andria

15. Philip6 Ludwell Lee (1775—1779-80?)

16. Henry6 Lee (Light-Horse Harry Lee) (1756 — 1818)

17. Nathanael Greene0 Lee (1783 — ? died in infancy)

18. Philip Ludwell0 Lee (1785 — 1792)

19. Lucy Grymes0 Lee (1786 — 1860)

20. Henry0 Lee (1787—1837)

21. Ann Hill Carter Lee (1773 — 1829) — second wife of Light-Horse

Harry Lee

22. Algernon Sidney6 Lee (1795-6 — ?)

23. Charles Carter0 Lee (1798 — 1871)

24. Ann Kinloch0 Lee (1800 — 1864)

25. Sidney Smith6 Lee (1802 — 1869)

26. Robert Edward6 Lee (1807 — 1870)

27. Anne Robinson McCarty Lee (1798 — 1840) — wife of Henry6 Lee

28. Margaret7 Lee (1818 — 1820?)

Note: The births of two other children to Thomas and Hannah Lee are recorded in Lee of
Virginia: Lucy,4 dates of birth and death unknown, and John,4 born 1729, died the same day and
probably buried in Burnt House Fields.

Note: Catharine Mildred0 Lee (1811 — 1857) — youngest child of Light-Horse Harry Lee and
Ann Carter Lee, born in Alexandria, Virginia, several weeks after the family left Stratford.

[440]

BOOK FOUR

THE RESTORATION OF STRATFORD
(1928-1935)

CHAPTER XXIII: THE SCENE IN 1928

/>np)HE GREAT HOUSE, flanked by its four dependencies, stood
bleak and gaunt in the center of a bare, grass-grown quadrangle.
- Its massive brick walls were shorn of foliage except for a tuft of
Virginia creeper near the south entrance and a ragged jasmine clinging
to the dilapidated end porch over the west door. The base lines of the
whole group of buildings were darkly accentuated by borders of ma-
roon coleus. Scrawny blinds of the eighteen-eighties, hanging on broken
hinges, and dingy window casings made ugly patches of green and
white against the red walls.

Here and there some of the old hand-moulded brick, rich in color
and texture, were missing, having crumbled or fallen from the walls.
The working out of mortar in the arches between the chimneys had
left gaping fissures. The shingles of the old gable roof were gradually
being shattered by rain and frost. High in the broken chimney caps,
some of which had been patched with cement, a few blades of grass
had already taken root — the sign of impending disintegration. Yet be-
cause of its sturdy foundations and stalwart English structure, the main
house itself still withstood the ravages of time. Its dependencies, how-
ever, were far gone. The old kitchen was but a shell of a building.
On the battered roof of the southwest outbuilding, weeds and bushes
had begun to grow. Beyond it, connected by an ivy-grown stone wall,
loomed the surviving section of the great stable, in so decayed a state
that its brick walls threatened to collapse in a sweep of north wind.

From the south entrance, beyond the wire fence enclosing the quad-
rangle, a treeless lane was cut between level corn fields to the county road
half a mile away. From the slight elevation, the Great House with its
tawny outbuildings commanded this wide range of fields. But from the
north entrance, the river side, the prospect was quite different. Here
the house looked toward the Potomac, nearly a mile distant, but there
was no glimpse of the river, the house being completely dominated by
the forest. Already the trees were fast encroaching on the rough ground
which served as a cow pasture. In but a little while, it seemed, the
forest would enfold the Great House.

Such was the scene when the writer first went there in the spring of
1928. Coming south from New England to do research on Mount
Vernon and Wakefield, she learned only by chance of the existence of
Stratford. Of near-bv Wakefield, Washington’s birthplace, nothing of

[443]

Bleak and gaunt the Great House stood.

THE SCENE IN 1928

44 S

the past survived save the desolate family burial ground, the founda-
tions and the other traces of some seventeenth century buildings. But at
Stratford, nearly everything survived. The old regal pattern, the mag-
nificent original design of the entire group of buildings, was apparent
under the surface changes. The whole place evoked images of seven-
teenth century England: the Tudor H-shape and the chimney groups,
the fortress-like walls, the simple, robust character of the Great House
and its dependencies — all seemed a transplantation of some old English
manor. And it was more than a grand architectural pile. It was a docu-
ment of human life, human events, and human tragedies. There it
stood, facing impending doom; strangely like a person who has long
outlived his friends, in stark poverty, but with patience, courage, and
dignity, it seemed to await the end.

At that very time, not many miles from Stratford, on the historic
peninsula between the James and the York rivers, the greatest restora-
tion project ever undertaken in the United States was beginning: the
re-creation of Williamsburg, the colonial capital of Virginia. There,
during the eighteenth century, all the colony congregated in "the sea-
son.” But out of the season — and this really meant by far the greater
portion of each year — the colonials lived on their plantations. Through
the plantation trades, arts, and industries was sustained the life of in-
numerably more people than ever dwelt in the little Tidewater city.
The picture of colonial life in Virginia would be quite incomplete in
restored Williamsburg alone, without a plantation in the background-
one that had a direct and living contact with the little city.

Stratford was just such a plantation. It dated from the earliest days
of Williamsburg and was connected with the colonial capital by many
ties. Numerous other early plantation houses of the Northern Neck
were comparable in size and magnificence with those of the James and
York rivers. But now only a few survive. In the three centuries since
this region had been settled, its social and industrial character had com-
pletely changed. The rivers were no longer the main traveled highways
they had been in the seventeenth and earlv and middle eighteenth cen-
turies. River steamers plied their courses daily, but the warehouses and
individual landings of the old planters had almost disappeared. With-
out a railroad, or even adequate roads, the Northern Neck had become
more or less inaccessible. Sons of the original settlers moved westward
to land not yet worn out by one-crop planting. Their old homes became
tenanted by strangers, many of whom could not afford to keep them in

Growing in the broken chimney caps were weeds and bushes.

THE SCENE IN 1928

447

proper repair. Some had been destroyed by fire; others gradually de-
teriorated. Of Nomini Hall, home of Councillor Carter, only the origi-
nal avenue of giant poplars remained. All that was left of Peckatone,
where Hannah Lee Corbin had lived, was the foundation. Cleve had
dropped into oblivion, and Menoken was on the brink of ruin. Of the
beautiful old homes, only Stratford, Mount Airy, Sabine Hall, Gav
Mont, Ditchley, and Marmion were left. Of them all, perhaps Strat-
ford alone might be acquired for a national shrine, to be restored as
a colonial plantation and as a memorial to a family important in the
early history of the nation. Even in its forlorn state, Stratford was a
heritage of the American people. Would not anyone seeing Stratford
be stirred by the impulse to save it for the future, to complete the dream
beginning to materialize at Williamsburg: a living picture of colonial
Virginia?

Stratford was also the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. Surely thousands
of people who in their childhood had been taught to revere him would
want to keep his birthplace from ruin, would want to preserve its beautv
and make it a memorial to him as one of the great figures of his time.

The point in question was, how might this be done?

The idea that Stratford be purchased as a national shrine in memory
of Robert E. Lee met with enthusiastic response. Strangely coincident
was the discovery of the manuscript copy of the address delivered by
Sidney Lanier in 1870 at a meeting of the citizens of Macon, Georgia,
called after the death of General Lee to honor his memory:

... In the antique times it was a fair custom at the beginning of a feast to
pour out generous libations of purple wine, calling at the same time upon the
name of some strong god, so that the divinity might descend out of heaven and
hover above the circling cup, vouchsafing prosperity to the wit, dignity to the
mirth, and glory to the festivity. Sir, my heart throbbed quicker and certain
unseen impulses stirred my blood when I heard you pronounce that name, first
of all names, as if he were to be the tutelar god of this banquet.

Fortunate, fortunate, thrice fortunate that feast whose inaugural invocation
is unto the mighty, matchless Spirit of Robert E. Lee!

For, Sir, he indeed is a greater than any antique deity. All the gods of
Greece are dead; but Lee has only now begun to live. The gods of Greece at
this moment have not a lover left in all the lands of all the world; but Lee —
ah, there is not a heart beating about this board wherein he does not sit, shining
with immortal radiance and encompassed with the purest loyalties that human
hearts can offer. The gods of Greece were shadows; they were myths; no man
ever saw them; but our god-like Lee, old comrades, have we not beheld with
our own eyes the majesty of his incarnate manhood, glorious amid the red
pomps of battle, glorious amid the simple fashions of peace? . . .

448 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

So. O magnificent Spirit, we invoke thee now: descend out of heaven; thou
hast presided over unimaginable feasts of death where the wine was blood
and the wit was a death shriek — preside now over the splendid hilarities of
these old comrades who have fought together, who have toiled together, and
who would now rejoice together: as thou wert in life our Commander, still,
still, over the river of death send thy voice to our hearts, still let us be inwardly
thrilling to know that in life and after life and forever, thou art our own hero,
our foremost one, our well-beloved General Lee.

Whereas: The souls of departing heroes are fitly accompanied to their last
repose by the solemn aspirations of living peoples, grateful for their lives and
mournful for their deaths; and Whereas, General Robert Edward Lee, in the
fullness of fruitful life, in the consummation of heroic patriotism, in the
majesty of silent fortitude, in the glory of splendid manhood, in the security
of an entire people’s faithful and enthusiastic regard, is gone unto that bril-
liant reward which Almighty Providence will assign to a Christian soldier
whose heart was as humble as his deeds were illustrious; Be it therefore

Resolved: That we, the assembled citizens of Macon, do with sincere devo-
tion lend our common voice to those mournful utterances evoked by the death
of Robert Lee, not only from our countrymen, but from all the manly spirits
of our time; calling upon the world to respect the grief of a people who in one
moment have lost a vigilant soldier, a humane victor, a beloved leader, a stately
man, an admirable citizen, an undoubting Christian, a brilliant son of that
Virginia which always teemed with illustrious progeny — and a lineal descend-
ant of long and honored ancestry.

Resolved: THAT WE INVITE OUR COUNTRYMEN TO
UNITE IN SOME ENDURING TESTIMONIAL TO THE STAIN-
LESS LIFE AND GLORIOUS SERVICES OF OUR DEPARTED
GENERAL, AND THAT IN THE JUDGMENT OF THIS MEET-
ING SUCH MONUMENT WOULD ASSUME ITS BEST PRO-
PRIETY IN THE FORM OF A GREAT HALL OF FAME TO BE
BUILT BY SUCH VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS AS SHALL
BE WITHIN THE COMPASS OF THE HUMBLEST CITIZEN
WHO LOVED HIM AND WHO DESIRES THE GRATEFUL
PRIVILEGE OF LAYING SOME TRIBUTE ON HIS TOMB.

Resolved: That we respectfully tender our sympathies to the family of the
illustrious deceased, pointing them to the noble consolations which present
themselves in the spectacle of a nation which earnestly shares their grief while
it proudly extols their kinsman.

i i i i

In the late summer of 1928 negotiations for the purchase of Stratford
were opened with the owner, Mr. Charles Edward Stuart, and an option
on the property was secured. A definite plan of restoration, based on
the research which had been in progress since the spring of that year,
was outlined. This included the repair and preservation of the mansion

THE SCENE IN 1928

449

and dependencies, the re-creation of the original Stratford library, the
restoration of the gardens, grounds, and orchards; of the House Over
the Vault, of the Old Mill, the Ship Yard, Warehouses, Store, and
Landing. The revival of the plantation arts and industries was a part of
this plan, so that the plantation life and its significance could be made
plain and Stratford itself might eventually become self-sustaining and
in every sense a living shrine.

Because of this enlarged view of the project it was apparent that an
independent organization to own and control the property would have
to be established.

On January 19, 1929, the one hundred and twenty-second anniversary
of the birth of Robert E. Lee, the contract for the purchase of Stratford
was signed, pending the incorporation of the Robert E. Lee Memorial
Foundation. The news, broadcast over the country, was received by the
South with deep gratification. The Louisville Courier journal, in an
article entitled "Marse Robert’s Home,” said:

Here is but another proof of the binding together of our colonial ancestry
into a homogeneous whole and evidence that we, their descendants, are all of
one blood. The opportunity of co-operating with the work of giving Stratford
Hall a place by the side of Monticello, Mount Vernon, Arlington, and other
national "shrines,” therefore is one to which all consistently may respond.

An editorial from a Richmond paper referred to the event as

... a refreshing sign of the times that the effort to acquire Stratford Hall,
the birthplace of Lee, is not sectional but national. Restoration of the fine old
home, and conversion of the entire plantation of 1,100 acres into a memorial
park, will be the work of the American people, seeking not only to honor the
memory of one of the giant figures of their common history, but to draw even
more general attention, for the benefit of the present generation, and future
generations, to the virtues of the man who was born at Stratford Hall. The
Westmoreland County place is to be a shrine, in the same sense that Wake-
field is to be a shrine, at which all of us may commune, for the quickening of
our nationalism, with one of the choicest spirits of the race.

Nearly two months later, on March 16, 1929, the Robert E. Lee
Memorial Foundation was formed under the membership corporation
law of the State of New York, with the following objects declared in
its charter:

To acquire the estate known as Stratford Hall, in Westmoreland County,
Virginia, the birthplace and boyhood home of Robert E. Lee. and to restore,
furnish, preserve and maintain it as a national shrine in perpetual memory of
Robert E. Lee; and, under suitable regulations, to open the said estate, with its
library, relics, buildings, gardens, and grounds, to the inspection of visitors, and
the use, benefit, and enjoyment of the public.

450 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The Foundation is legally authorized to transact business in the State
of Virginia. Its affairs are managed by a board of fifty-five directors
and by officers elected by them, a president, secretary, assistant secretary,
treasurer, and assistant treasurer. The certificate of the corporation con-
tains the names of the seventeen charter members representing nine
states: Connecticut, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, Mis-
souri, Georgia, South Carolina, and Delaware. A director resident in
England was also appointed. Very shortly thereafter were added the
District of Columbia and eight more states: California, Mississippi,
Alabama, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
West Virginia.

In order to further the sponsorship of other representative citizens
throughout the nation, a National Advisory Board was created to co-
operate actively with the Board of Directors of the Foundation. Among
its members was General Lee’s devoted friend, Edward V. Valen-
tine, the sculptor. Another surviving friend invited to participate in the
Stratford work was Lee’s old chaplain, Rev. Giles B. Cooke, aged ninety
years, and the last surviving member of his staff. Major Cooke was ap-
pointed Chaplain-General of the Foundation.

The public announcement of the incorporation of the new patriotic
organization and its definite objectives for the restoration of Stratford
Hall, following so closely upon the news of its purchase, also evoked
widespread press comment. The New York World said:

The famous old Hall is one of the most historic in the Old Dominion. It is
associated with a family that has performed conspicuous services for the entire
Nation for a century and a half and more. It is identified intimately with the
memory of the man who is thought by many military experts to have been the
greatest of all American soldiers. No one today thinks of Lee as anything
other than a great American. He is a national possession. . . . Aside from its
association with Lee, Stratford Hall should be preserved as an example of old
colonial architecture in the South. It is a monument to a day that is dead. And
that day was not without its glories.

The Nashville Banner observed:

Nothing in connection with the recent decision to purchase the old home of
Robert E. Lee, restore it, and make it a shrine dedicated to the memory of that
great American has been more pleasing and noteworthy than the outpouring of
tributes to the Confederacy’s most noted figure. From North, East, South, and
West there have come expressions of admiration and reverence for Robert E.
Lee, and if anything had been needed to prove that this country is now a union
in fact as well as in name, they would have supplied it.

An editorial under the caption "A Shrine to Lee,” from the Houston
Post-Dispatch , was copied by many western papers:

THE SCENE IN 1928

451

In latter years Americans are evincing greater interest in creating memorials
to illustrious figures in the Nation’s history. It is a gratifying development. It
deepens national pride and quickens patriotism. In the earlier years of the life
of the Nation the people were so busy they took little time to honor the
memory of their great leaders. The graves of some of the most eminent are
unmarked, or unknown. We are passing out of that era. We are erecting
shrines. Monticello, the home of Jefferson, is to be maintained perpetually as
an American shrine. Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, have had me-
morial foundations established in their honor. . . . None of these servants of
the Nation were more worthy of being immortalized than was Robert E. Lee,
the South’s most beloved son, and one now honored throughout the Nation as
one of America’s noblest and greatest products in all its history. It is fitting
that a memorial foundation should be established to aid in perpetuating his
name and deeds by restoring his birthplace and converting it into a national
shrine.

The new corporation was similarly welcomed and endorsed by many
other newspapers and organizations. With seventeen states and twenty-
six directors at work, the Lee Foundation gathered momentum from day
to day. Contributions meanwhile continued to come in from friends in
other states who wanted to be represented in their first call to save
Stratford. The idea of saving the home seemed to capture the imagina-
tion of the country. Men and women from coast to coast offered their
services to this national memorial to General Lee. For many it was a
crusade.

The deed conveying Stratford Hall to the Robert E. Lee Memorial
Foundation, Inc., was at last signed on July 19, 1929, and the check of
the Foundation completing the first payment was handed to the former
owner by Reverend Giles B. Cooke. This transaction took place in the
room in which Robert E. Lee and his famous kinsmen of the eighteenth
century were born. On the same day a celebration was held by the
Foundation at Stratford, to which the public was invited.

A flag of the United States which had flown over Mount Vernon was
presented to the Foundation for use on this and all future public occa-
sions. A large crowd gathered at Stratford. Citizens of the Northern
Neck, among whom was the playwright and chronicler of Westmore-
land annals, Paul Kester, came to wish the Foundation godspeed. Other
delegations came from Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Fredericks-
burg and the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The exercises were held
in the grounds before the south front of the mansion.

Honorable Schuyler Otis Bland, Member of Congress from Virginia,
made the formal address. In recounting the history of the Lee family

The chimney towers of Stratford Hall.

THE SCENE IN 1928

453

and the work of the Foundation, he said in part: "The transfer of title
today concludes the initial step in the purchase of this property. The
first payment has been made, but others must follow; and the comple-
tion of that purchase rests with the American people. Then Stratford
will be endowed, restored, and preserved forever for the American
people. When the purchase of Stratford shall have been completed it
will be a memorial to distinguished public service. It will be a me-
morial to the great soldier in whose honor its purchase has been under-
taken. It will be a memorial to those Lees of Revolutionary fame who
wrought so tirelessly and so nobly for this Nation’s independence.”
The author of Lee the American, Gamaliel Bradford, a member of
the National Advisory Board of the Lee Foundation, sent this message
from Massachusetts: "When I realize what a great, magnificent influ-
ence the study of General Lee was in my own life, I wish I could do
more to extend the influence to others. In any case I am sure you will
use the Stratford Memorial as he would have wished; that is, to do
everything possible to bring about good feeling between all sections of
the country and to impress upon us the conviction that to be a great
American is to be a great example to North and South alike. I am happy
to see both sections growing more and more ready to recognize the
greatness of each other, and I hope to live to see the elimination of the
bitterness and animosity which General Lee so persistently deplored
when he said: 'Madam, forget these local animosities. Remember that
we are all one country now, and make your sons Americans.’ ”

At the 1930 session of its legislature the Commonwealth of Virginia
voted to exempt Stratford from taxation. Ways and means of tempora-
rily operating the historic plantation were studied by individual directors
pending measures to be determined later by the Board. It was decided
to open the estate at once to the public with an admission fee. Before
any reconstruction or restoration of the buildings could be undertaken,
emergency repairs were made to prevent their further deterioration and
safeguard them from the danger of fire.

Through the following committees were undertaken the various
phases of the administrative, maintenance, research, and restoration
work of Stratford:

Arrangements, Arts and Industries, Coach House and Stable, Conser-
vation, Constitution and By-laws, Cooperation with United Daughters of
the Confederacy, Directors’ Quarters, Employment and Management,
Farm, Finance, Fine Arts, Fire Protection, Garden, Grounds, Historical
Records, House Furnishing, House Restoration, Household Equipment,

454

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

International Relations, Kennels, Landing Field, Lee Records, Library,
Negro Quarters, Old Kitchen, Origin, Plantation Hospitality, Plantation
Store, Program, Publicity, Relics, Research, Resolutions, Stratford Land-
ing, Watercraft, Ways and Means.

Before the close of 1930 ten more states were enrolled under the
Foundation: Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oregon, Texas, Washington, Florida and Rhode Island. In 1931 and
1932 Maine, Colorado and New Jersey enrolled; in 1935 Michigan and
Minnesota; and in April of 1935 a director was appointed for Hawaii.

Notwithstanding this gratifying development and all the generous
aid from organizations and individuals, the needs of Stratford continued
to be urgent. Repairs were costly and the interest payments on the
mortgage were a severe drain on the resources of the Foundation’s treas-
ury, for the project was caught in the maelstrom of economic depression.
The balance due on the mortgage was an immense sum for a newly
formed organization to meet. The directors redoubled their efforts.

On January 19, 1932, the anniversary of the birthday of Robert E. Lee,
the president of the Foundation announced to every director this amaz-
ing news: "Three years ago . . she wrote, "on the eve of General
Lee’s birthday I had the pleasure of giving you the news that the con-
tract for the purchase of Stratford would be signed the following day,
January 19, 1929, for the sum of $240,000.00. Two months later the
Robert E. Lee Foundation was incorporated for the purpose of com-
pleting the purchase and proceeding with the restoration. During the
past three years, interest and principal payments have been made by
the Foundation until the mortgage had been reduced to $115,000.00.

"Ten days ago, the Foundation lifted this mortgage by a payment of
the full amount due to the former owner. This, a miracle in these times,
was made possible through the beautiful and generous act of a friend
interested in Stratford, who advanced the sum of $115,000.00, so that
all future interest might be saved and that the Foundation might take
free possession of the property. This amount will be returned to our
benefactor when general contributions reach the sum necessary. This
message that I bring, relieves our minds and hearts of all uncertainty
and causes double rejoicing throughout the country, on this, the one
hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth of this greatly beloved

man.

CHAPTER XXIV: THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

CAREFUL research at the beginning of a restoration project fre-
quently prevents grave errors. It was impossible to begin
restoration at Stratford without the answers to many questions.
How had Stratford looked in Thomas Lee’s day? What was the original
plan of the entire estate? What changes had taken place in the house
and grounds, and when had they been made? Only by careful search
into out-of-the-way corners could the answers to these questions be de-
termined and the way made clear for the work of the Foundation.

To the world outside Virginia Stratford Hall was scarcely known in
1928-29. In Virginia it was revered as the birthplace of Robert E. Lee.
But in the printed letters of Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee,
or William and Arthur Lee, it is referred to infrequently and merely bv
name. Not once is it described by Light-Horse Harry Lee.

A few descriptions, however, were available, notably those contained
in Lee of Virginia and in some biographies of General Lee derived
from this genealogical record. Somewhere, in places unknown, in
regions unexplored, was the original source material that would reveal
the full account of Stratford’s history and a consecutive record of its
owners. To uncover these facts was like charting unknown seas. Of
great value were the letters of Thomas Lee Shippen and others of the
Lee family, published in Lee of Virginia ; certain statements in Bishop
Meade’s Old Churches and Families of Virginia; a few comments from
The Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, and the observations and
descriptions written by Robert E. Lee in his biography of his father and
in his published letters. General Lee mentions the old road leading to
the Great House, the vault, the spring, and the horse-chestnut tree in
the garden planted by his mother, and longs to return to his birthplace
after the war.

From Savannah, Georgia, November 22, 1861, he wrote to his daugh-
ters: "I am much pleased at your description of Stratford and your visit.
It is endeared to me by many recollections, and it has been always a great
desire of my life to be able to purchase it. Now that we have no other
home, and the one we so loved has been so foully polluted, the desire
is stronger with me than ever. The horsechestnut you mention in the
garden was planted by my mother. I am sorry the vault is so dilapidated.
You did not mention the spring, one of the objects of my earliest
recollections. ...”

[455]

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

457

Again, two weeks later he wrote to his wife: "In the absence of a
home I wish I could purchase Stratford. That is the only other place
that I could go to, now accessible to us, that would inspire me with
feelings of pleasure and local love. You and the girls could remain there
in quiet. It is a poor place but we could make enough cornbread and
bacon for our support, and the girls could weave us clothes. 1 wonder
if it is for sale and at how much. Ask Fitzhugh to try to find out when
he gets to Fredericksburg.”

Casting about for ways and means to provide clothing for the soldiers
of the Confederacy General Lee thought of Stratford in its remote and
isolated position, so inaccessible to the enemy, as a possible place for a
domestic manufactory. From Coosawhatchie, South Carolina, December
29, 1861, he wrote to his son Fitzhugh’s wife, his "Precious Chass,” in
whose courageous life and tragic death there is summed up the story
entire of the women of the Confederacy:

. . .You will have to get out the old wheels and looms again, else I do not
know where we poor Confederates will get clothes. I do not think there are
manufactories sufficient in the Confederacy to supply the demand; and as the
men are all engrossed by the war, the women will have to engage in the busi-
ness. Fayetteville — or Stratford would be a fine place for a domestic manu-
factory. ... I send you some sweet violets, I hope they may retain their
fragrance till you receive them. I have just gathered them for you. The sun
has set and my eyes plead for relief for they have had no rest this holy day.
But my heart with all its strength stretches toward you and those with you
and hushes in silence its yearnings. God bless you, my daughter, your dear
husband and son.

When in the spring of 1866, he received a painting of Stratford from
Minnie Ward of Bladensfield, Richmond County, Virginia, General
Lee wrote the young girl: "Your picture vividly recalls scenes of my
earliest and happiest days. Though unseen for years every feature of the
house is familiar to me.”1

The examination of manuscript collections, among them the Lee and
Shippen Papers in the Library of Congress, then followed. Unpublished
material of deep interest came to light. For instance, the court record
referring to Thomas Lee’s sea voyage in 1716 was supplemented by the
finding of his original letter from London. This is preserved in the
Richard Bland Lee Papers in the Library of Congress and proved to be
a key point in the history of Stratford. Another revelation in papers
preserved here was a letter from Lord Halifax, throwing new light on

1See frontispiece.

458 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

President Lee’s administration as acting governor of the colony of Vir-
ginia, quoted in Chapter VIII.

From the Lee books, letters, and manuscripts, and from the court rec-
ords, came many other hints as to missing material. There had been a
large collection of letters and documents at Stratford prior to and
during the Revolution. What had become of those? Thomas Lee’s li-
brary had contained one of the most celebrated collections of the classics
in the colony, which had later been augmented by Richard Henry Lee.
Where was it now?

In Robert E. Lee’s preface to the third edition of his father’s Memoirs ,
he says:

The incidents from which the biography has been prepared were furnished
to the editor of the present edition by his eldest brother, Charles Carter Lee,
so that he had only to select from the materials prepared for him what he
deemed appropriate for the purpose.

On one point some explanation may be necessary. In the series of letters
written to his son from the West India Islands by the author of the Memoirs
in the latter days of his life, some repetition of his sentiments occurs, owing
to his declining health, his distance from home, and the slow and uncertain
communication of that period, and there are some topics discussed more in-
teresting to his family than to the general reader; these have been omitted,
though without affecting the sense of the letters.

In these missing references might be priceless information about
Stratford and the family life there. The originals must be found. But
where? Letters from Lafayette, George Mason, Alexander Hamilton,
Anthony Wayne, Washington, Madison, and Light-Horse Harry Lee,
are quoted in that volume as well as in the first two books written by
Light-Horse Harry’s son Henry. Surely the originals must exist some-
where. The only letters of Robert E. Lee’s mother, Ann Carter Lee,
available at that time were the few contained in the Library of Con-
gress. Others there must be, for the searching.

Among the family records available was a clue to the original plan of
Stratford. Clues innumerable there were. The opportunity to follow
them soon became possible. The search was continued for the original
letters of Light-Horse Harry Lee, and the manuscript collection and
vanished library of Stratford. The Tidewater region was traversed and
existing homes or sites of the Lee and related families seen. Williams-
burg was revisited, and a study made of the ground plan of the old
Capitol and its relation to that of Stratford. Documentary evidence of
basic value to the restoration, already located, was made available

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

459

through typed transcriptions of records in county courthouses of the
Northern Neck and in the Library of Congress.

One of the most productive clues was that of a chest of Lee papers in
a remote section of Virginia, which had been located, after a three-year
search, in the possession of Light-Horse Harry Lee’s grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. A personal request to see these papers was courte-
ously granted. The locked trunk was opened for the first time in many
years. It contained parts of the long lost Stratford manuscript collection,
including some of the letters received by Light-Horse Harry Lee from
brother officers of the Revolution. Here were the only original letters
in existence from Light-Horse Harry Lee to his family, written during
the summer of 1813, directly after he arrived in the West Indies. Here
too were several original letters written bv Ann Carter Lee to add to
what Dr. Freeman terms, "the scant score of letters in her autograph
that now remain.”2 Examination showed that the trunk contained parts
of two other collections: Major Henry Lee’s private and official letters
and papers; and Charles Carter Lee’s personal letters from relatives and
friends, his verses, and his Stratford reminiscences in manuscript.

At the death of Light-Horse Harry Lee, the first part of this collection,
with all the portraits and the books of the original library, had come
into the possession of his eldest son, Henry, the last Lee master of Strat-
ford Hall. Henry took it with him in 1830 when he went as consul
general to Algiers. Through his European travels for several years he
carried these letters and documents. Occasionally he presented certain
of the most valuable of the originals to important personages for favors
rendered. One original Washington letter he gave to the mother of
Napoleon, another to the Premier of Canada.

After Henry Lee’s death in Paris in 1837, and the death of his wife,
the collection was taken by Major Lee’s secretary, George Frederick
Brown, to Henry’s half-brother and best friend, Carter Lee. The origi-
nal (and only copy) of The Leedstown Resolutions of 1765, with all
the signatures of the Westmoreland patriots, was among these papers.
This famous document was thus rescued and, in 1848, presented to the
Virginia Historical Society. A number of Major Lee’s private letters
remained in the Brown family, and were part of the source material
studied many years later by the local historian, Dr. G. W. Beale. Among
the letters was a lengthy one written to Light-Horse Harry Lee by George
Washington, which was destroyed. A number of the other valuable

2Douglas Southall Freeman, R. E. Lee, Vol. I, p. 88.

460 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

documents were given away by Carter now and then, as courtesies to
friends, several among them to the sculptor Crawford. The private cor-
respondence of Henry Lee, including the letters of his wife, Anne Mc-
Carty Lee, Carter kept intact, instructing his family never to read them.
To this collection Carter eventually added letters of his own from his
parents and from relatives and friends.

Yet another mishap was to reduce this collection still further. When
General Robert E. Lee was writing his father’s biography and making a
new edition of the Memoirs, as already referred to, he turned to his
brother Carter as the one archivist in their immediate family. Carter sent
Robert at Lexington a large part of the collection, including twelve of
the letters written him from the West Indies by their father, and, in ad-
dition to those already mentioned, other original autographed letters
from William B. Reed, Henry Peyton, Governor Rutledge of South
Carolina, Charles Carter of Shirley, etc. Lee’s letters, dating from 1816
to 1818, are quoted in full or in part in the 1869 edition of his
Memoirs. Unfortunately they were subjected to editing, as General
Lee himself says. A copy by Carter of the original of one of the twelve
found in the chest shows many changes, and thus would seem to indicate
that the others published may also have been much changed from the
originals. Shortly after the publication of this edition of the Memoirs,
General Lee died, and these papers have not since been available.
Enough of the original collection was left, however, to make it of in-
estimable historical value, even in its fragmentary form.

Aside from the historical value of this "find,” Carter Lee’s Virginia
Georgies and his reminiscences in manuscript form about Stratford
and the family life in Westmoreland proved to be of significance to the
architectural restoration, as detailed in several chapters of this book.

Another discovery of importance to Stratford also came about in a
most unexpected way. When examining the Shippen papers at the home
of Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen of Washington (a descendant of Alice Lee),
the writer was given access to a closed traveling desk containing
original Lee and Shippen papers. This combination medicine chest and
camp desk had belonged to Dr. Shippen’s father, Dr. Edward Shippen,
and had been carried by him through the War Between the States. In
later years it was placed in the store room of the Shippen home. It con-
tained several of Thomas Lee Shippen’s memoranda books in which he
had recorded miscellaneous notes, expenditures, travel directions, etc.,
and a copy of the eloquent tribute to Thomas Lee, written by his son,

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

461

Richard Henry Lee." This heretofore unknown inscription had been
carved on the monument erected at Pope’s Creek Church during the
1750’s to President Lee by his sons. Tom Shippen may have copied it
when he visited Stratford in September, 1790. Shortly thereafter the
colonial church was demolished and its monuments and gravestones dis-
appeared.

Reference is also made in Chapter IV to the record of President Lee’s
administration which was found, almost by chance, in a folder labeled
Virginia Miscellaneous Papers filed in the Division of Manuscripts of
the Library of Congress. Such a document was not generally known to
be extant. Several years’ search had not revealed records of that specific
period in any official papers in Williamsburg or even in the Public
Record Office of London. Because of the destruction by fire of the "fair
Brick Capitol,” there was a gap in the records of colonial Virginia for
the years 1749-51. The Library of Congress filled that gap.

The journal of Light-Horse Harry Lee, mentioned in Chapter XVIII,
was another unexpected mine of valuable source material not heretofore
known.

Records about William Clarke Somerville, the fifth master of Strat-
ford, seemed at first impossible to find. Practically nothing about him
was published. Piece by piece there came to light evidence in Virginia
and Maryland courthouses, the State Department, private libraries and
manuscript collections, and through correspondence with sources in
France, Venezuela — and at length communication with collateral de-
scendants— through which it became possible to compile a complete
record.

Facts about the disposal of the original Stratford library were found
in the Westmoreland Court House among documents relating to Major
Henry Lee’s sale of Stratford and most of its contents to William Clarke
Somerville. A document dated August 26, 1822, stated: ”... and I
further sell by these presents to the said Somerville my library, with
the exceptions of the books I have given to the Theological Seminaries
of Virginia, Mrs. Lee’s few books, and my new Copy of Shakespeare,
one of Horice, Virgil, and Milton, and Corcess Atlas, also Blackstone’s
Commentaries which I have given to my brother Carter, and in place
of which I hereby convey to the said Somerville my maps by Arrow-
smith. ...”

With so definite a clue as this, there appeared to be every possibility of

3The full text of this inscription is reproduced for the first time in Chapter IV.

462 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

finding the books. Permission was given the writer to make a personal
search for them in the basement of the Seminary library near Alex-
andria. Here were stored, but not indexed, several thousand very old
volumes, not in general use — and here were found a number of the
seventeenth and early eighteenth century books of the original library
of Stratford! Among them were: The Cambridge Concordance to The
Holy Scriptures, with Books of the Apocrypha of the date, 1720; The
Life of King Henry the Second , by George Lord Lyttleton, published in
London in 1742; the works of William Chillingworth, Henry Ham-
mond, Thomas Bennet, Humphrey Prideaux, Jeremy Taylor, Lowth’s
and Patrick’s Commentaries, and a number of others. These books con-
tain autographs of Thomas Lee, Philip Ludwell Lee, Elizabeth Steptoe
Lee, Hannah Philippa Lee, Light-Horse Harry Lee, and Major Henry
Lee, together with some rare book plates of the Lees and Ludwells. In
some are interesting inscriptions; in one is the autograph of William
Penn. The entire collection of autographed volumes, together with ap-
proximately two hundred other very old books which may prove to have
been part of the original library, have been given to the Lee Foundation
as a perpetual loan by the Board of Trustees of the Seminary.

A source of much assistance in the research work for Stratford over a
period of several years was a private library presented to the Founda-
tion. This library comprises about twenty-five hundred books by and
about the Lees and relating to many aspects of the history of colonial
and revolutionary Virginia. In 1931 the donor began to gather as many
as were possible of the books written by members of the Lee family.
He obtained practically every edition of each of the Lee books, pam-
phlets, and addresses which were published from the Revolutionary
period down to the War Between the States. He engaged agents in
France and England to collect rare and supposedly non-existent works
written by or attributed to the Lees. Books relating to the Lee and
other families, and to Virginia, once part of private reference libraries
in this country, were purchased when these libraries were sold at auction
or private sale. Added to this library are photostat copies made of many
records of Lee family history, in print here and abroad, and of a number
of rare books, manuscripts, letters, and other documents where the
originals could not be secured.

From the extended examination and transcriptions of the records in
the courthouses of the Northern Neck counties, especially Westmore-

Alcove in the dining room.

ighteenth century bird house under the eaves of the southwest outbuilding.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

465

land, and in Fredericksburg and Richmond, documentary evidence of
value to the restoration resulted. Search made into the historical back-
ground of the title to Stratford, rather than its purely legal aspects,
brought to light details referring to various periods when building took
place and improvements were made at Stratford, and also gave the com-
plete historical record of the chain of ownership.4 The tradition was
confirmed that buildings existed on the Stratford estate over half a
century before the place was named Stratford or the Great House was
built. Of particular value were the inventories and appraisals of the
estates of the Lees, from the first Richard down to those of Thomas Lee
and his sons; their wills, the titles, agreements, deeds and partitions of
their properties, guardianship accounts, and court orders covering the
affairs of the owners of Cobb’s Hall, Ditchley, Matholic, Lee Hall, Strat-
ford, Chantilly, and Peckatone.

Records bearing directly upon the Stratford restoration were the in-
ventories of Thomas Lee (1758) and of Philip Ludwell Lee (1776-79).
These documents designate the rooms, buildings, lofts, garden, farms,
etc., of the Stratford estate and give a partial record of their equipment.
The order and the nomenclature as listed in the inventory are as follows:

ROOMS

Parlour, Parlour closet, Dineing room, Hall, Library, Library closet,
Dressing room, Closet in the passage, Blew room. Green room, Red room,
White room, White room closet, Brick rooms, Servants’ lodging rooms,
Spinning room, Housekeeper’s room.

BUILDINGS

Counting house, Dairy, Fat store, Dairy loft, Apple loft, Cellars, Wet
store, Meat house, Coach house, Dry store, Garden, Barn, Smith’s shop,
Horse mill, Kitchen, Stable.

FARMS

Upper Clifts, Hollows Marsh, Willingtons.

Their equipment includes: "arms, art objects, books, beds, chairs,
chests of drawers and cloaths press; couches, desks (scrutores), fabrics,
fireplace accessories, lighting, miscellaneous, tables, tableware and cut-
lery; stock, tools, foodstuffs, building materials.” The value of the fur-
nishings and equipment is given in pounds, shillings, and pence, or in
pounds of tobacco. An interesting picture of the period is given in the
following analysis of the Thomas Lees’ inventory:

4For this highly specialized and expert piece of research the Foundation is indebted to Miss
Lucy Brown Beale.

466

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

II. FURNITURE
A. EQUIPMENT OF ROOMS

ARMS

2 Guns 1 Iron rod 70/ Library

1 Sword 30/ Library

an old Perry auger & Cannon at Stratford 1/10/0
ART OBJECTS

26 prints 26/ ' Blew room

19 Flower peices & old Pictures at 3/2 Green room

some Prints 10/ Parlour

BOOKS

£ S. D.

Books 212. 16. 9 Hall

Books 21. 8. 6 Library

Books 29. 10. 0 Library closet

Total . . ~262. 34. 15

BEDS

1 Bed & furniture £7 Library

1 Bed & Furniture £3 Dressing room

1 Bed and furniture £6 Blew room

1 Bed and furniture

1 Bed, Bedstead Curtains & Furniture £11 .... Green room

1 Bed Bedstead and Furniture &c £7

1 Bed bedstead, matress & Furniture £7 White room

1 Bed Bedstead and Furniture £5

beds &c £3 S.10 Brick rooms

2 beds &c 1/7/6 Servants Lodging room

a bed &c £3 S.10 Housekeepers room

CHAIRS

14 Chairs at 15/ a Japan Cobler Dineing room

12 Chairs at 20/ Hall

12 Chairs &c 38/ Library

6 old Chairs Dressing room

2 Chairs 3/4 Blew room

11 Chairs with Cain Bottoms at 2/6 Green room

2 stool Chairs at 5/

a two armed Chair 3£

1 Close stool, Chair pan White room

CHESTS OF DRAWERS AND CLOATHS PRESS

A Chest of Drawers Library closet

a large Walnut Linnen press, with drawers . . Dressing room

1 Chest of Drawers 25/

Chest of Drawers &c Counting house

COUCHES

2 Couches £6 Hall

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

467

DESKS (SCRUTORE)

1 Scrutore 4£

a Writing Desk

an old oak Scrutore £3

FABRICS

20 prs. of Sheets and Pillon Cases at 6/6

30 Towels at 9d

24 Table Cloaths and napkins, most of these
old & tore £6

1 Curtains Bedstead &c

Bedstead Curtains

Linnen &c

FIREPLACE ACCESSORIES

Chimney Furniture 70/

Chimney Furniture 9S

Chimney Furniture

A fender Shovel & Tongs

Chimney Furniture

Paint Stone 5/

Hearth stone 12S

LIGHTING

5 Candle sticks 4 pr. of Snuffers 12S

1 Chandelier &c £21

MISCELLANEOUS

a Clock £10

old Medicines 5S

Spice Box

3 prs. of scales & weights

TABLES

2 tea Tables

One red and white marble table & frame £4 .

2 Walnut Tables at 40/

a Small Table

2 small tables 10/

Little Table

2 Tables £2

a marble Table 40/

TABLEWARE AND CUTLERY

a plate frame 5/, a coffee roaster, 6d. 0/5/6. .

8 Waiters & 2 water jugs . 0/3/0

2 tea Tables, 2 Coffee Potts 0/12/6

A Glass Salver a Desart knife case . 0/2/0 . .

5 China bowles, 47 China Plates . 4/10/0 ....

5 China dishes a Parcel of Tea China, four
bowls,

Library

Counting house
Dressing room

Blew room
Green room
Dry store

Library

Dressing room
Blew room
Green room
White room

Parlour closet

Hall

Parlour
Library
Library closet

Parlour closet
Dineing room

Hall

Dressing room
Green room
White room
Parlour

Parlour closet

Ruins of the vault in the family burial ground.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

469

14 Plates & 6 dishes — cracked . 4/0/0 Parlour closet

4 Water Glasses and other things . 0/6/0 ....

161 02. and 12 Penny wc. of Plate at 6/8 an oz.

33/17/4

a Parcel of Cannisters &c . 0/16/0 Closet in passage

1 Case and 15 Potte botles . 0/15/0

B. EQUIPMENT OF BUILDINGS
£. S. D.

a Writing Desk, Chest of

Drawers &c 1. 6. 0 . . Counting house

beds & c 3. 10. 0 . . Brick rooms

2 beds &c 1. 7. 6 . . Servants lodging room

a Parcel of Lumber 2. 17. 6 . . Spinning room

a bed &c 3. 10. 0 . . House keepers room

Furniture &c 6. 12. 6. . . Dairy

Old Jarrs &c 1. 6. 0 . . Fat store

A Parcell of Lumber 1.15. 0 . . Dairy loft

Ditto 0. 5. 0 . . Apple loft

Liquors &c 100. 0. 0 . . Cellars and Wet store

Jarrs &c 1. 14. 0 . . Meat house

Linnen &c 61. 6. 3 . . Dry store

III. TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT NAMED
£. S. D.

Brick Layers tool &c 0. 15. 0

Coopers — Ditto 1. 5. 0

Sawyer tools 4. 10. 0

Carpenters tools 2 . 1 4. 6

Shoemakers and

Curryers tools 1. 0. 0

Negroes tools 3. 3. 0 . . At Hollows Marsh

Negroes tools 50/ At the Upper Clifts

Negroes Tools 35/ At Willingtons

A stone roller 1. 0. 0 . . In the garden

an old Fan &c 1. 0. 0 . . In the horse mill

Wheels & Old Iron &c 80. 17. 3 ■ . In the coach house

Kitchen Furniture 24. 9. 0 . .

Parcels of lumber mentioned in Library Closet,

Spinning Room, Dairy Loft

IV. STOCK AND EQUIPMENT

2 ox Carts

Some pieces of an old Chariott and Chair . . Barn

A Horse Tumbler

12 oxen

Horses in the Stable £40

128 sheep young & old Cattle at Stratford at 25/

470

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

NEGROES, MARES AND COLTS £5

53 Cattle young & old at 30/ a head Upper Clifts

2 oxen £5 Cart 30/

33 hogs young & old at 6/10 a head

108 Cattle young & old at 31/6 a head Hollows Marsh

57 Hoggs ditto at 7/10 ditto

6 oxen £18, cart £5

Old Field Mares & Colts

35 Cattle young and old at 25/ a head Willingtons

21 Hoggs ditto Willingtons

4 Oxen £10, Cart Willingtons

Although not complete or adequately representative of the home of
President and Mrs. Lee, as it was taken eight or more years after their
deaths, the document is highly significant. Many of the most valued
household possessions may have been taken to Williamsburg when
Thomas Lee was made acting governor of the colony. Others may have
been removed during the next several years when three of Philip Lud-
well Lee’s younger brothers married, and, with the exception of Richard
Henry, settled elsewhere.

The next Stratford inventory, that of "The late Honble Philip Lud-
well Lee,” was taken eighteen years later, in 1776. It is a voluminous
document and records many changes at Stratford. New designations of
certain of the rooms appear, such as a Nursery, School room, Cherry Tree
room, Under Room Office, Office, Laundry, Smoke House, etc. Among
the household furnishings not listed in the first inventory are queen’s
ware china, copper, pewter, alabaster, clock, bird cage, maps, busts of
Homer and Shakespeare, musical instruments, military equipment, kitch-
en utensils, agricultural tools, gardener’s tools, wines, candlesticks, game
table; also the names and value of negro slaves; live stock; boat, vessel,
sail cloth, etc. The Stratford estate is mentioned as comprising 6.595
acres; the Great House is spoken of as "Mansion House,” and the
outbuildings, as "Offices,” "Tenanted Lands,” and "The Mills,” are
mentioned.

This contains further a minute description of portions of Stratford
estate as divided in a court order dated February 29, 1780, as well as de-
tails of the administrator’s account, mentioning music, dancing lessons,
and tutoring given the Stratford children; the kinds and quality of goods
purchased for the family, especially the daughters, including wearing
apparel, jewelry, dress goods, musical instruments; valuation of library;
and appraisal of horses, mares, and colts, with description and name of
each horse.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

471

The record of the Lee china in these inventories proved to be of prac-
tical service to the present-day operations of Stratford. That of Thomas
Lee mentions: 5 China bowles, 47 China Plates, 5 China dishes a Parcel
of Tea China, jour bowls, 14 Plates. In that of his eldest son "the late
honble Philip Ludwell Lee” (1776), 1 Tea kittle and Tripet . . 30/, 138
pieces of Queen’s China consisting of plates, dishes, Mugs, Tureens etc.

. . 70. Fragments of this historic china and other objects of glass, porce-
lain, and metal were revealed through the 1930 excavations in the
grounds near the mansion. Buried in the earth for nearly a century, the
broken pieces still retained their ancient texture and color, a faint rose
— the original chinaware of the Lees two hundred years ago. On this
interesting basis a design for a Stratford plate was made by one of the
Foundation directors and sent with a fragment of the original china to
Wedgwood in England. Arrangements were made for its manufacture
of Staffordshire ware. The border is of the embossed Wedgwood Pa-
trician pattern and in the center is a picture of the Great House done in
the Lee crimson. Each plate of the first edition is designated by a back-
stamp, a replica of the signature of General Lee, made directly from one
of his autographed letters addressed to his mother’s early home on the
James River. In this way both of the family homes General Lee loved so
well, Stratford and Shirley, are associated in these signed gift plates,
which will in time become valuable heirlooms.

Other significant documents of practical and immediate use to the
architects in their restoration plans for the buildings and grounds were
the fire insurance policies taken out in 1801 and in 1805 by Light-Horse
Harry Lee with the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia.5 These papers
describe the location of Stratford, the number, dimensions, and nomen-
clature of the Stratford buildings, their situation, materials of construc-
tion in walls, buildings, and roofs, and their monetary valuation.

Some marked changes occur in the nomenclature of the buildings as
compared with the preceding inventories.

(A) A brick Dwelling house 95 feet long by 50 wide Two Stories high
covered with wood

( B ) A brick Kitchen — feet by — feet covered with wood
( C ) Smoke & meat house built of Brick & wood covered with wood
( D ) A work shop bult of Brick & covered with wood
(Dimension on drawing 30 by 40 feet)

r'Photostats of the original documents were presented to the Lee Foundation by Mr. Robert
A. Lancaster, Jr. Owned by The Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia at Richmond, Virginia,
they were made for the Foundation by order of the late Dr. H. R. Mcllwaine, Virginia State
Librarian.

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Interior of kitchen before restoration.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

475

( E ) A brick stable 32 by 40 feet (sic) including shed one story high

( F ) A brick stable 44 feet by 40 feet one story high

(G) ? Coaches (and) lumber houses & feet by 40 (feet) one story high
covered with wood

( H ) Brick lumber house — feet by — feet one story

( I ) Brick Gardner’s house — feet by — feet one story high

( K ) A wooden Barn — feet by — feet one story high

(L) A Negroes Quarter built of stone covered with wood. (Dimensions
marked on drawing 32 feet by 15 feet.)

(M) A Negroes Quarter built of stone covered with wood. (Dimensions
marked on drawing 32 feet by 15 feet.)

Crude drawings illustrate these papers. That of the dwelling house
shows the balcony on the roof. No building appears near the corner of
the northwest dependency, where the old foundations were uncovered
in 1930, thus proving that whatever structure originally stood on this
foundation had disappeared by 1801, when the drawing was made. It
might possibly have been an orangery built bv Thomas Lee, or the
weaving shed of Philip Ludwell Lee. Whatever it was, it had disap-
peared before 1801.

The second insurance policy, entered in 1805, declared a revaluation
of the buildings so considerable as to denote some new construction
work in that period. A number of changes are evident. Eight buildings
are listed as against twelve in the previous policy. Omitted are one
stable, a barn, and the two negroes’ quarters. Nomenclature changes in
reference to Building D, 30 by 40 feet, which in 1801 is designated as a
"Workshop,” but in 1805 becomes "A Servant’s House.” Mention also
occurs of three porticoes, two stories high, of brick covered with wood,
attached to the dwelling house, which are not mentioned in the first
policy. The dimensions of the dwelling house are somewhat different.
Possibly they are more exact in the second policy. Description of the lo-
cation of Stratford is also more exact: Stratford Plantation "between
the lands of Mr. Daniel McCarty, west and that of Mr. Richard Henry
Lee, East . . .’’[Chantilly].

476

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The mansion house at Stratford stands near the beginning of the great
line of Georgian houses of Virginia. Already uniform, balanced, and
serene, it is still simple, still massive, still austere. Devoid of every
columnar element on the exterior, it is nevertheless exceptionally aca-
demic in scheme — unique in America in having a single piano nobile
above a tall, inhabited basement.

The iv alls are of fine brickwork in Flemish bond, with glazed headers
in the lower story, and, in the upper, wide corners, jambs, and arches of
red rubbed bricks. The two main doorways, to south and north, are like-
wise of fine brickwork, rubbed and moulded. The great features of the
exterior, however, are the steps and chimneys. To lead up to the prin-
cipal floor there were originally three great exterior stairways: of brick
in balancing flights at the ends; of stone with stone balusters, the only
examples in colonial America, at the f ront. Through the simple hipped
roof at either end of the house rise groups of four chimney stacks
joined by arches, forming pavilions above the rooftops.

The plan is the traditional H, surviving from the seventeenth cen-
tury— the hall occupying the center. In each of the four wings are tivo
rooms to a floor, a larger and a smaller. In the main story these were
the principal living rooms; on the ground floor, originally, the bed-
rooms. Only the hall is richly panelled, with a range of Corinthian
pilasters unique in the colonies. All the others have merely painted
walls, some with panelled dadoes, and all with simple mantels, of
which several survive from the first period of the house.

Beyond each corner of the mansion stands a brick outbuilding —
kitchen, office, gardener’s house, or storehouse. Beyond at the west are
the stables, also in sturdy early brick. Flanked by mellow walls, the
buildings rise in the midst of their great trees, a plantation group of the
utmost harmony and dignity. Fiske Kimball.

CHAPTER XXV: THE GREAT HOUSE AND ITS
DEPENDENCIES

STRATFORD was an old house to be repaired and preserved pre-
cisely as it stood in the early eighteenth century; it was not one to
be reconstructed, or for which a new design would have to be
created. Under the very few surface changes of the nineteenth century,
original parts of both the exterior and interior of the mansion and its
dependencies, which had long since disappeared, could readily be per-
ceived.

These facts were fully appreciated by the directors of the Lee Foun-
dation from the time they acquired the estate. The necessity to adhere
faithfully to every line of the original structure became with them almost
a religion. Accordingly, they were impressed when Fiske Kimball stated
the general fundamental problems and principles of restoration:

The greatest conservatism should be exercised as to changing anything, even
if this is believed to be changing it back the way it is supposed formerly to
have been. More harm has perhaps been done to historic buildings by ill-
judged "restoration” than by neglect, and such damage is really irreparable. In
a building with a long history, where certain minor changes have been made
from time to time, there is an interest in these traces of the centuries which
would be lost in an attempt to "purify” the style by making it all once more
of the first period of its building — replacing what is, after all, now of respect-
able age by what is merely new. I think that there would be general agreement
that at least any work which preserves the classical tradition, even down to the
time of the Confederate war, should be undisturbed.

An even greater danger is that, in any work which is undertaken, our modern
preferences in artistic matters be indulged, when really we should follow the
evidence as to how things were, whether we would have made them that way
or not. Thus, if the evidence is that certain interior finish was painted from
the start, we should not leave it unpainted just because "It seems a shame to
cover up such beautiful grain”; or, if we find a certain original color, change
it, because we don’t like it, and pretend it must have faded!

Nor should we argue merely from analogy with what was done elsewhere,
and use certain "undoubtedly authentic” colors which we find on Colonial
rooms in the museums at New York or Brooklyn or Philadelphia. We should
find out and follow the colors used in just those very rooms at Stratford itself.
It is always practicable to do this by scraping skillfully, by taking off and look-
ing under old locks, etc. The same principle holds true in a score of other
matters on which evidence may survive either in the work itself or in old
documents, descriptions, etc., the search for which is thus the first task in a
work of this kind.

In 1932 Mr. Kimball was commissioned architect for the restoration

[477]

478

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

of Stratford, and the firm of Claiborne and Taylor, Inc., of Richmond,
Virginia, engaged as the contractors. As a basis from which to start, the
Research Committee of the Foundation provided the architect with the
documentary evidence assembled through the research work.

At the fourth annual meeting of the Council at Stratford in October,
1932, Mr. Kimball presented his report, with specifications and draw-
ings of his proposed plans for the repair and preservation of the build-
ings. This interesting and comprehensive report was entitled: "Strat-
ford: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” In referring to the preserva-
tion and restoration of historic buildings in general, and of Stratford
in particular, Mr. Kimball discussed the types of restoration associated
with the French architect, Viollet-le-Duc, and the later work of Ruskin’s
followers.

Viollet-le-Duc sought to make "an ideal reconstitution of a building
as it should have looked when built.” Ruskin limited new work to repairs
actually essential to preservation. Both types of work have their disad-
vantages. Mr. Kimball went on to say:

Now, clearly, we should make no exclusive application of either one of these
rigid older policies of treating historic buildings. We should not demand rigid
consistency with a single selected date or period, expurgating everything not
then in existence. If we made this date 1776, for instance, we should have to
tear down the fine southern walls of the home-lot, built partly after 1810, and
rip out, without compensation, the interesting finish of the rooms remodelled in
1805 — both part of the familiar aspect of Stratford in the boyhood of Robert
E. Lee, and already of very substantial antiquity. On the other hand, if we
chose to be consistent with 1810, we should have to rebuild, by guess, the
north porch of 1805, and leave the awkward stairs of that year which so much
injure the old beauty of Stratford. Too strict adherence to the doctrine of preser-
vation would condemn us to keep every makeshift replacement of the period
of dilapidation. We must follow, instead of an exact consistency, a wise op-
portunism, keeping in mind both authenticity and beauty.

The measures wisely to be taken at Stratford may be inferred from the history
of the building itself and are of several sorts. Repair is vital to the very exis-
tence of the house, and it must be thorough-going. There must be a new perma-
nent roof covering, and it must be fireproof. Fortunately the latest type of
composition shingles, moulded from old wooden ones, seems completely satis-
factory. The wood honey-combed by termites must be removed, involving a
reconstruction of the floors and the lower partitions. There is no reason why the
new construction should not be also fireproof, but the old surfaces must be kept
wherever practicable. No one would wish a Stratford with new soles, heels, and
uppers. . . .

Stratford is indeed unlike any house either in England or America in its par-
ticular combination of significant features. The scheme of having the principal

THE GREAT HOUSE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

479

floor, entered by a great flight of steps, above a high architectural basement of
a full story, was a favorite one in English monumental houses of the XVII and
XVIII centuries, particularly those adorned with the classic orders, but to find
it in 1730 in a house on the banks of the Potomac, not so adorned, is very sur-
prising. The grouping of chimneys by arches is also not unparalleled, both in
England and America, but no other example is sufficiently similar to the one at
Stratford to have served as a model for it. . . .

The various outbuildings will need treatment along similar lines: structural
repair of walls and roofs badly injured by water and frost; loving replacement
of interior work which has vanished in the long day of abandonment. The early
panelling, the lines of which are so clearly indicated in a room of the western
building, should evidently be supplied. Some day the two demolished brick
buildings, beyond the kitchen and toward the stable, should be reconstructed, as
sympathetically as possible without disturbing the great garden walls built from
their materials. The front wall and gates should be restored on the foundations
revealed by excavation.

The architect’s suggestion was to restore first some one part of the
group of old buildings, and make it complete and attractive "as a sample
of the total promised result.” Since the main house was, as he said, "a
large and long job, the choice may well fall on the Kitchen Building.”
He further advised that, when prosaic structural repair began on the
mansion itself, the roof covering and floor construction should come
first. It was his view that the restoration of the original outside and in-
side stairs would make the greatest single improvement in the appear-
ance of the Great House.

During the summer of 1932 Stratford was vacated by its former
owner. Meanwhile the Foundation had appointed as resident superin-
tendent Major-General B. F. Cheatham, United States Army (retired),
who came to Stratford on July Fourth. An examination of the structural
conditions of the entire house now became possible for the first time. It
was discovered with dismay that termites, rain, and frost had caused con-
siderable disintegration of the interior floors and woodwork.

The first work at Stratford under the direction of Mr. Kimball was
that of emergency repair and repointing of the chimney arches of the
mansion. Old brick of the same period as the existing work was used —
and when new brick was necessary, handmade "Jamestown” stretchers
and white glazed headers, the type approved by the architect for the
restoration. All of the buildings at Stratford are of hand-moulded brick,
made on the place. According to Mr. Kimball, "they show in some parts
the Flemish bond with glazed headers characteristic of the Virginia Tide-

The Old Kitchen Restored.

THE GREAT HOUSE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

481

water in the early eighteenth century. In the stable and the southern out-
buildings, glazed headers are used throughout; in the main house they
are used only in the ground story and in the chimneys; in the northern
outbuildings they are used only on the ends and southern face. No
rubbed or gauged bricks are used in the southern outbuildings, the
corners and arches being merely unglazed common brick. The upper
story of the main house, on the other hand, doubtless shares with Rose-
well the distinction of being the earliest example in the colony of a
maximum depth of rubbed dressings.”

The lovely color and texture of age was not disturbed in any of the
repairing done on the Great House. The utmost care was used in match-
ing the new mortar to the old. The few replacements can scarcely be dis-
tinguished today from the older workmanship.

The next work undertaken was repairing of the old Smoke House.
This outbuilding was in an advanced state of decay, with a great hole in
the northern side of its roof. The sheathing here was replaced with
boards smoked up to match the old ones and covered with old shingles
already weathered, but still sound and good for years to come. A frag-
ment of brick wall adjoining the Smoke House proved to be a portion
of the original meat house built by Thomas Lee. The most careful
measures were taken by the Foundation to preserve what was left of this
interesting relic.

The restoration of the old kitchen followed. This building was on the
point of collapse. A bad break in the north wall extended from the base
of the building to the rusty metal roof. The arch over the door was
shattered, and the door itself broken. Loose or broken brick seemed
likely to fall from the arch, the walls, or the chimney caps in every
windstorm. The windows in the south and north gables had been
blocked up; the chimney leaned slightly to the north. Inside the kitchen,
the walls had been patched in places and calcimined. The brickwork of
the chimney breast was broken — the original brick arch over the fireplace
had disappeared and another had been put in its place. Here, on the
verge of ruin, was one of the most unusual colonial fireplaces extant,
cited by Fiske and other historians as a rare example in the colonial
kitchen of the South. It measures twelve feet in width, six in height, and
five in depth — an extraordinary size "evidently capable of roasting a
fair-sized ox,” Edmund Jennings Lee says.

The methods used by the Lee Foundation in restoring the kitchen
form one of the most interesting chapters of its adventure in restoration.

The old kitchen and the south ha-ha wall. First building at Stratford to be restored.

THE GREAT HOUSE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

483

How the breaks were mended, loose bricks reset and bonded in new
materials perfectly matched with the old, and every particle of existing
original work saved, makes as dramatic a tale as might be found in
architectural annals. No old work that was sound, or which could
possibly be preserved, was destroyed or disturbed. Instructions to this
effect were posted by the architect in several places during the operation
of the work, and if a workman failed to heed these instructions he risked
the loss of his job.

All the breaks in the walls were repaired, and the exterior woodwork
repaired and repainted; loose brick and mortar were reset. The broken
arch over the north door was rebuilt to match the existing parts. Steps
were taken to prevent further settling of the chimney, and the lost cap
was reconstructed. The rustv tin roof was replaced with fireproof
shingles.

The original west cornice was found to be in such perfect condition
as to serve as a model for the restoration of the other cornices.

The missing and decayed structural timbers and woodwork inside the
kitchen were replaced. The slight amount of new material used and the
methods of construction matched the old work in every detail. The ceil-
ing was lathed and plastered, and the plastering of the walls done on the
brick according to the first method used. The fireplace, celebrated in
historic fact and tradition, was restored to its former appearance, and
the new arch replaced in brick. The modern patching at the right lining
of the old oven was removed in the presence of the architect, so that its
early opening might be determined.

The architect advised against cleaning the old exposed brick with
acids or cleaning fluids. Only where the east wall was stained with rust
was cleaning permitted, and there water was used. The brick salvaged
from the blocked window openings and the razed garden wall near the
Law Office was used in the repair work. Restoration of the old kitchen
was completed bv the earlv summer of 1933. The "seasoning garden”
having been planted in the walled-in kitchen court, this little group of
buildings — one of the most picturesque at Stratford — perfectly restored,
now made a charming picture.

In the Great House itself, interest naturally centered in the southeast
chamber, the room in which Robert E. Lee and the other celebrated Lees
were born. Of all the rooms in Stratford Hall, the preservation of this,
the Mother’s Room, most deeply concerned the Foundation — and the
public.

Interior of kitchen after restoration.

THE GREAT HOUSE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

485

In this room termites had undermined the supporting beams and
joists of a large portion of the floor, parts of which were rotting. The
partition between the room and the nursery had cracked badly, due to its
settling some three or four inches. This had been shifted slightlv at one
time, and a closet had been installed in the smaller room. An octagonal
corner or "jog” built there, possibly in the early 1800’s, disfigured the
original proportions of this room.

The woodwork, trim, doors and casings in both rooms had during the
years received a number of coats of paint, with the result that several
shades of brown disguised the original color, an oyster white. The
original graining of the panelled doors was effectually concealed bv
heavy paint of a thick mustard yellow. Practically the only modern
work was the painting, some hardware, window sash, and the outside
window casings. These were, however, only surface changes, and in
no way obliterated the actual features of the room. Not one serious
structural change, except that of the nursery wall, had occurred in this
room since the house was built. In every sense it was — and is — the
original room. The trim and other woodwork in both rooms, except that
by the fireplace, dated back to the first quarter of the eighteenth century.
Most of the interior wood casings and the window seats were of the
period of Thomas Lee.

To restore this apartment adequately meant the structural repair of
the entire section of the east wing in which it was located. The wood-
work, infested with termites, must be destroyed, and further ravages
prevented by the placing of a concrete slab for the protection of the
ground floor under the historic chamber. In opening the floor, it was
found that the permanent studs and the original girder over the partition
were in sound structural condition. The floors of the chamber and nur-
sery were repaired and made level, and the boards patched where nec-
essary, so that every particle of the original could be retained. The plas-
ter was repaired in these rooms, the small repairs necessary on the ex-
terior woodwork finish were made, and the woodwork and plaster were
restored to their original color. When the various modern coats of paint
had been removed from the door opening into this room from the east
passage, it proved to be painted on the room side with a mahogany grain,
with a narrow, light stripe suggesting inlay of Heppelwhite character.
This showed a rare form of workmanship of the late eighteenth centurv
period, and the perfect restoration of the door was a difficult job. With
the exception of those at Homewood, few such doors exist in the great

486 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

houses of Virginia or Maryland; or, existing, few have been successfully
restored. The restoration of the apartment as a whole forms a har-
monious and charming background for the furnishing, which is yet to
be completed.

During the progress of the restoration of this room, one of the archi-
tectural mysteries of Stratford was solved — the location and type of the
original inside staircase leading from the ground floor to the main floor.
In the eighteenth century a very narrow flight of stairs had led from the
ground floor to the main floor and from the main floor to the attic, thus
giving access to the chimney "summer houses” and the roof promenade.
Sometime during the early nineteenth century this original stairway was
replaced with one not quite so narrow. From the ground floor to the main
floor the entrance to the nursery from the passage was closed, and all
visible evidence of the original staircase obliterated. In the course of
restoration work the outline of the original stairway with its sharp turns
and platforms was clearly revealed in both wood and plaster. This was a
discovery of architectural importance. Detailed drawings of the steps
were then prepared by Mr. Kimball, and the original stairway repro-
duced.

The next portion of the mansion to be restored was the Great Hall, or
"saloon” as it was frequently termed by members of the Lee family.
Like the hall of the mediaeval castle, it had had many uses. Being the
most important room in the Great House, it was the one upon which the
greatest expense and labor were bestowed. The vaulted ceiling was very
high, and the walls were panelled in yellow pine. "This panelling,” Mr.
Kimball says, "is obviously from a very early period, and its elaborate-
ness (at such a time) makes it one of the most precious we have in
America. The glazed doors are inconceivable at that early date and
probably represented some later change.”

The former owner had refused large cash offers for the old panelling,
baseboard, and pilasters. Many visitors surmised that in its original state
the panelled walls had been stripped, showing the natural color of the
wood. Others contended that the walls had been painted. Under the
layers of artificial graining and solid colors, painted in various tones in
successive generations, the original paint was at length disclosed. It was
a soft, two-toned gray, with a bluish cast — an unexpected revelation of
beauty and of treatment.

The floor by the south door, under which the old supports had com-
pletely decayed, was shored up from the basement, thus providing solid

Original inside staircase leading from ground floor to East Passage on main floor.

488 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

bearing for the new joists. The old door frames and doors were replaced
with new ones of eastern yellow heart pine. The late window sash and
frames, so out of keeping with the original design, were also replaced
with sash and frames of the same yellow pine. Solid panels were placed
in the cupboard doors.

The ceiling was done in oyster white and toned in perfectly with the
walls. Thus, under the skillful and sensitive hands of the restorer, the
original beauties of the Great Hall were recaptured, and its long hidden
grace revealed. The color tones mellow the panelling and soften the
mouldings, the baseboard, and the pilasters. Today ceiling, walls, floor,
windows, and doorways are once again a harmonious whole. It is no
wonder that young Thomas Lee Shippen called the room one of the most
beautiful and spacious halls he had ever seen.

The untouched passages leading into the east and west wings from the
restored "saloon,” however, struck a discordant note. The work here
consisted chiefly in the replacement of some decayed wood and in re-
storing the woodwork and walls to their original color. Saw-cut sec-
tions of moulded members, which needed replacement in occasional
places, served as samples for the accurate following of the new work.
The surface paint of dull brown was removed from the woodwork, and
the original green took its place. When the paint was scraped from the
double doorway leading to the east steps, original graining in imitation
of mahogany was revealed. This was identical with that found on the
existing door leading into the southeast chamber. These double doors
were also carefully restored and rehung with old H and L hinges.

The exterior of the Great House was much improved when the
temporary white asbestos roof covering was replaced with a permanent
roof of fireproof composition shingles, patterned after those used in the
Williamsburg restoration. In removing the remnants of the old roof
the architect gave instructions to keep a sharp lookout for any signs of
original construction of the walk on the crest of the ridge. This "roof
promenade” between the two groups of chimneys was, as Carter Lee
says, a popular feature of Stratford before and during the American
Revolution. Added documentary proof of its existence is shown in the
insurance drawings made by Light-Horse Harry Lee. According to the
architect it was of very slight construction, however, possibly "set up on
short posts with their lower ends merely nailed on top of the shingles,”
since no trace of it was revealed, despite closest examination of the roof
for any possible clue.

The south entrance of the mansion had been disfigured for many

THE GREAT HOUSE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

489

generations by a steep, narrow, shabby flight of steps with a thin iron
handrailing. This had replaced the original handsome stairway with its
heavy balustrades and broad treads which had disappeared early in the
nineteenth century.

In the excavations of 1930, parts of the original stairway were dis-
covered. The architect says: "Various remains of steps, balusters, and
rails in what appear to be Portland stone, one baluster bearing the
number 10 very competently carved, seem to have come from this earlier
stair. Clearly, as in many authenticated cases in the Virginia Tidewater,
this stonework, which was beyond the skill of any stonecutters then in
the colony, was cut in England and sent over, numbered, to be set up.
Nowhere else in Colonial America do we find a stone balustrade and
square balusters. Common enough in England, they are rare in America
even in wood. It is interesting to note that in England itself such a
spreading flight would ordinarily have curved outward (There seems to
be a straight one on the west front of Ashdown House, Berks.) ; evi-
dently Lee or his agent thought such a curving flight with a stone rail
too difficult and expensive."

The reconstruction of this majestic stone stairway of the late seven-
teenth century style helped to restore to the Great House its stately ap-
pearance of the day of President Lee.

With the removal of the old green blinds, the rich rubbed-brick frame
of the windows was revealed. Some of the window casings have been
restored to the original red. Gradually disappearing are the sharp, hard,
ugly colors that never belonged to the house. When the uniform tone,
Spanish red, is completed in every part of the exterior, a oneness of effect
will be given to the whole building. The beauty of its strange pattern
will be brought into relief — its texture and age-old design. There is
such life in these colors that the walls seem actually to breathe.

i 1 1 i

At their spring meeting in 1933, the American Institute of Architects
endorsed the restoration and preservation of Stratford Hall as follows:

Whereas, The Lee Homestead, known as Stratford in Virginia, is a building
still largely intact, and of prime architectural importance; and

Whereas, The Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation has shown wisdom and
serious purpose in the preliminary research that has been conducted and in the
programs for restoration; therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Institute commends the fact and the manner of the pro-
posed restoration of Stratford, Virginia, and cites it to the country as an under-
taking worthy of support and emulation.

Floor Plan of Stratford Hall, 1 758. Drawn by Fiske Kimball.

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Floor Plan of Stratford Hall, 1776. Drawn by Fiske Kimball.

Floor Plan of Stratford Hall, 1805. Drawn by Fiske Kimball.

Floor Plan of Stratford Hall , 1935. Drawn by Fiske Kimball.

The octagon summer house restored on its original foundations.

CHAPTER XXVI: THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARD

ALL that remained of the original Stratford gardens and orchard in
the summer of 1929, when the Robert E. Lee Memorial Founda-
• tion bought the estate, were the old English beeches, a few hick-
ory trees, one horse-chestnut tree, some stray fig bushes, and a broad, flat,
weed-grown area east of the Great House, partly enclosed by a brick
wall.

The beeches and hickories, strangled with dead wood, were fast going
into decay. Even with June just passed, their leaves were russet brown
and beginning to shrivel. The horse-chestnut, last survivor of the group
planted by Ann Lee when Robert was perhaps about three years old, was
but a ghost of a tree. Faintly green, it stood on the edge of the cow
pasture, close to the northeast outbuilding.

The old garden area reached out from the shadow of the beeches into
a sunlit space of waste land where larkspur, althea, morning glories,
and some forget-me-nots still bloomed in a chaos of weeds and briars.
Then it dipped again into shade — into the deep green of a grove of
pines, oaks and cedars which concealed debris and mounds of broken
brick and stone. Almost hidden was the fallen arch of brick over the
ruins of the vault where, nearly six generations ago, Matilda Lee was
buried. The ruins themselves were embedded in the earth, and vine and
trees grew where once the tombs had been.

The original brick wall around the kitchen area was intact, as was also
a portion of the old wall running from the northeast outbuilding be-
tween the garden area and the pasture. The two were joined by another
wall, which was evidently of later construction as it was of used brick
and was built at the foot of a terrace extending just beyond the beeches.
A few hollyhocks splashed gay colors over the rough brick and against
the smokehouse, close to the old kitchen — a structure that looked cen-
turies old. A tall, scrawny fig bush grew in the enclosed courtyard of
the kitchen and smokehouse.

There was not a root of box on the place. Indications of but one ter-
race, or "fall,” existed, except where the location of trees pointed to
other levels. There were no steps or ramps — if ever there had been such;
nor was there any sign of the original parterres, edgings, flower beds, or
paths. Nothing indicated the original garden pattern. The actual setting
of the house had completely vanished, there being nothing visible to

[495]

496

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

indicate the garden design or the relationship of the plan of the grounds
to the house. Were they laid out without relation to the house or were
they an intimate part of it? Who could determine this key point?

The problems of the garden restoration were far more difficult than
were those pertaining to the restoration of the house.

After the examination of the garden area, the orchard site, and the
grounds, the next step was the assembling and careful study and analysis
of the documentary evidence which had been collected through the
Foundation research.

Certain lines and verses in Carter Lee’s book, Virginia Georgies' long
out of print, revealed exact details of the Stratford scene:

On the Potomac doth a mansion stand,

Whose walls were built of brick from Old England;

Eight chimneys formed two summer-house pillars,

From which were seen Potomac’s sea-like billows;

Tall Lombardy poplars, in lengthened row,

Far o’er the woods a dwelling’s signal show, —

A pillar of cloud by day to guide the stranger

To a generous board, and his horse to a good manger.

This was the old seat of the Lees, renowned
For what none else can boast of on the ground, —

For being the birthplace of two signers
Of the Declaration of Independence. Mine was
Here, too, a circumstance to others worthless,

But much to me, for I am fond of my birthplace,

And am glad the sun first greeted me on earth
Where the mover of independence had his birth.

I think there was a mile of solid wall
Surrounding offices, garden, stables, and all;

And on the eastern side of the garden one,

Pomegranates ripened in the morning sun;

And farther off, yet sheltered by it, grew
Figs, such as those Alcinous’ garden knew,

And owned, when they increased my childhood’s blisses,

By him who was called the American Ulysses.2

Yet at the end of this long wall, where played
So often in the soft pomegranate’s shade,

Phil, Tom, Dick Henry, Francis Lightfoot Lee,

William, and Arthur, in their childhood’s glee,

’Carter Lee’s personal copy of this rare book, published in 1858 at Richmond, Virginia, con-
taining corrections and additions in his own handwriting, was loaned the writer by his only sur-
riving son, Robert Randolph Lee of Richmond, Virginia.

2Colonel Henry (Light-Horse Harry) Lee, of the Legion, who was thus styled by Colonel
John Eager Howard.

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS 497

Destined, at length, to be such famous men,

Was formed at the same structure a pig-pen:

Perhaps its best description is, ’twas one
End of the wall shaped to an octagon’

From Carter Lee’s Maid and the Doe, descriptions of Westmoreland
and Stratford forests were rescued from oblivion. A series of old news-
paper and magazine articles written in the eighteen-seventies and
-eighties by George W. Beale, which had disappeared from general
knowledge, contained significant data.

In Tom Shippen’s letter of September 21, 1790, to his parents he said:
”... And I am now to speak of Stratford, Chantilly and Menokin,
Stratford the seat of my fathers is a place of which too much cannot be
said, whether you consider the venerable magnificence of its buildings
the happy disposition of its grounds, or the extent and variety of its
prospects. Stratford whose delightful shades formed the comfort and
retirement of my wise and Philosophic grandfather with what a mixture
of awe and pious gratification did I explore & admire your beauties!”4
This description of the cardinal points of the original setting of the
house provided the key to the restoration and determined the scope and
character of the plan.

Information about the early planting at Stratford and facts within
the memory of living persons were also obtained through the writer’s
personal interviews with the recent owners of the plantation, old-time
friends and neighbors, and with Uncle West, the one descendant of the
Lee family slaves remaining on the place. Although the material was
secured at different times and from people living in widely separated
localities, it was significant that each reference corroborated the others.

The location of two old box trees close by the smokehouse was re-
called, as was the fact that they were taller than its peaked roof and
that Mrs. Storke had said "they had always been there.” Uncle West re-
membered that all the old paths were once lined with box, "but the
sheep and the goats ate up every scrap of it.” Figs always grew in back
of the kitchen, he said. The walls of the smokehouse were covered with
ivy when he was a boy. There were some roses there too, near the kitch-
en door. The white laurel roses once growing near the old beech
trees were the most beautiful, he thought. A weeping willow stood near
the crape myrtle outside the kitchen, close to the path leading to the old
slave quarters. Back of the crape myrtle was a svringa bush, and pome-

3Presented to the writer by Colonel R. C. Ballard Thruston of Louisville, Kentucky.
4Shippen Papers, Library of Congress.

VIRGINIA OEOIUilCS.

If the great God in His great works delight
\ gents to use too small for naked sight,

How stupid in poor little man to despise
Appointed means apparent to his eye s !

Clod, who regards things as large or as small,

Is wondrous alike in the infinite and infinitessmal ;
But man, with mind so dark ana strength so brittle,
Fails in great things because he spurns the little.

Then recollect, in farming, all the schools .

Teach nothing better than economy’s rules —

By these be guided in whate’er you do,

Manuring, cultivating, breeding too.

Waste no manure, your labour, save it all,

And breed such stocks as have the offal small.
Purchase no implement at fancy cost,

Nor those in working which there’s labour lost ;

But make your money and your labour go
Far as they can to make your profits grow.

On the Potomac doth a mansion * stand
Whose walls were built of brick from old England;
Eight chimneys formed two summer houses’ pillars,
From which were seen Potomac’s sjwT-like billows :
Tall Lombardy poplars in lengthened row,

Far o’er the woods a dwelling’s signal show,

A pillar of cloud by day to guide the stranger
To a generous board, and his horse to a good manger.
This was the old seat of the Lees, renowned
For what none else can boast of SflH&eground —

l yx- J ■ ;

See note 'J — Putt II.

_ u: <a- *4*^ -

/ ,

On the Potomac doth a mansion stand." Description of Stratford from " Virginia

Georgies.

VIRGINIA OKORGICS.

T\»r being the hirth place of tiro of the .signers
Of tile Declaration of Independence. Mine was
There too, a circumstance to others worthless,

Hut much to me, for I’m fond of my birth-place,

And glad the sun first greeted me on earth
AY here the mover of jiuteneinleiToe had his birth.

kbttvr.kjl} tere was a immof” solid wall,

Surrounding offices, garden, stables and all,

And on the eastern side of the garden one,
Pomegranates ripened in the morning sun ;

And further off, yet sheltered by it, grew
Figs such as those Alcinous’ garden knew,

And owned, when they increased my childhood’s blisses,
l’*y him w ho w as called the American * Ulysses.

•Vet at the end of this long wall, where played
So often in the soft pomegranate’s shade,

Phil, Tom, Dick Henry, Francis Lightfoot Lee,

AY illiam and Arthur in their childhood’s glee,—

Destined, at length, to be such famous men,

Was formed of the same structure, a pig pen-,.

Perhaps its best description is, ’twas one
End of the wall shaped to an octagon.

There from the garden’s offal pigs were fed,

The weeds they would not eat composed their bed,

And pusley, wire-gra<s, hog-weed, cabbage-stalks,

And outside leave-^and grass cleared from the walks,
Yea, alltlie garden’s offal they would pour
Into that pen for food or for manure.

• S'-L' note •'! — Part II.

500 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

granates grew against the wall. Opposite the weeping willow was a
stout old locust tree "that had always been there — and the old road
running around in the old Hickory Field was lined with cedars, buc
they was all cut down and fence posts made out of them.”

Uncle West also said that the blacksmith shop was located on the
side of the old road just beyond the curve where the sugar maples grew:
"I ’members when the ground was black with charcoal all around here.
Pete Johnson planted corn here, an’ he was disappointed when it didn’t
grow. Nothin’ ever grew on this spot. There was seven sugar maples
planted in a circle, and the road curved around them. Just four is left
today.”

The restoration of the gardens and the development of the grounds
were planned with the idea of reviving the spirit and the grand manner
of the eighteenth century. Immediate steps were taken to save the old
trees of Stratford from further decay and to purchase some of the finest
box in Westmoreland. The surviving English beeches and hickory trees
were pruned, watered, fed, and placed in the hands of tree surgeons.

With the coming of the spring of 1930, the interest of Virginia was
stirred from Tidewater to the Blue Ridge when the Historic Garden-
Tour of 1930 was dedicated wholly to Stratford.5 Among the other his-
toric places in the Tidewater region opened to the public at this time
were a number of the ancestral homes (still owned and occupied by
descendants) of men, successive generations of whom had served with
the Lees in the House of Burgesses and the Council at Jamestown and
Williamsburg, in the Continental Congress, and in the first Congress
of the United States. Thus the pilgrimage signified a revival of age-old
friendships, and in itself linked the beautiful living gardens of Vir-
ginia and Maryland with the lost gardens of Stratford. Thousands of
people were thus enabled to have a direct and personal share in the
restoration and to respond to the call: General Lee is in the saddle
again ! Let this be a ride of victory to a home of peace — to Stratford,
from ivhence he came and to which he longed to return.

Significant as historical research proved to be for the Stratford garden,
it was far from completing the picture as a whole. Certain basic prob-
lems still had to be solved. The location and extent of the original
boundaries had not been determined; evidence had to be found of
the old approaches, the original walls and paths, of possible terraces and

5The historic gardens of Maryland were opened the following season for the benefit of
Stratford.

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS

501

ramps, bowers and summer houses, parterres and flower beds. There was
but one sure method — excavation. Archaeological investigation alone
could determine all the facts essential to the restoration of the garden.
Accordingly a landscape architect, Mr. Arthur A. Shurcliff, was engaged
to direct the preliminary archaeological research in the area immediately
surrounding the Great House.

At this time Mr. Shurcliff, who was in charge of the City Plan and
Landscape Architecture of Colonial Williamsburg, had just finished the
measurements of approximately one hundred Southern places which he
had checked with contemporary places in England. "Nevertheless,” he
says, "my first sight of Stratford found me unprepared for so large and
noble a mansion and for grounds indicating a layout of such strikingly
impressive character. With much enthusiasm I took up the project, in co-
operation with the Committee.”

Surveys of the property and of the grounds close to the house were
made, including measurements and examinations of the surface of the
ground and the making of plans showing trees, structures, topographical
forms, and the surface remains of walls. To quote from Mr. Shurcliff’s
statement:

Careful excavations of the ground were made in places where the finding of
foundations of buildings might be expected through analogy with other places
of the period in the South and in England. Measurements were made of the ex-
cavations, both where nothing was found and where findings were made.
Photographic and descriptive records were kept. When findings were made,
these were measured accurately and drawn to scale on surveys, with an indi-
cation of position, height, condition of the soil, relation to fragments of
pottery, glass, brick, stone, or other indicative materials.

Scale drawings of brickwork were made showing sizes, widths of joint na-
ture of mortar, and other factors which would determine the age and the order
in which the original work was carried out. The trenches were carried down to
undisturbed ground and the edges shaved to show the layers of accumulated
material.

The work was extended towards the east and north-east, into the territory
where gardens and garden structures were known to have existed in ancient
times, and orientation of remains of old paths, often deeply buried below the
existing surface of the ground, were recorded. Fragments of pottery, glass,
metal, and utensils were listed, and these cast light on the uses to which por-
tions of the ground had been put.

Foundations of hitherto unknown structures were revealed in the
course of this work, among them part of an original building adjoin-
ing the old cmokehouse. nocsiblv used for the storage of the meat after
smoking. Some very old flower beds were found under two or three
strata of later beds. A curved foundation near the east wing of the Great

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS

503

House pointed to the existence of a terrace as old as the house itself. The
foundation of what might have been a balcony was found at the north
or river side of the house. Fragments of stone balustrades were un-
earthed near bv. On the eastern boundary of the garden, near the ruins ol
the vault in the family burial ground, was uncovered a brick wall, the
foundation of which was four feet underground. In the kitchen yard was
found a brick cistern, thirty-five feet deep.

Carter Lee’s reference in Virginia Georgies to an octagonal structure
at the end of the long garden wall proved significant, for in the excava-
tions the foundations of this building were found as Carter had de-
scribed.

As the work proceeded in the ground south of the mansion, near the
sundial, the apparent "curiously uniform terrace” proved to be the
foundation of a ha-ha wall from three to four and one-half feet high.
Directly beyond it was a pavement twenty feet wide laid in herringbone
pattern. Gutters and stone foundations of steps for two gateways or
bridges in this sunken wall were found, one leading to the mansion bv
the kitchen, the other by the southwest outbuilding.

Discoveries came thick and fast. Photographic record was made of
every wall, pavement, foundation, and structure that came to light above
and below the ground. The Shurclift preliminary sketch plans showed
the perfect symmetry of the original layout, the extensive walls, and also
the ruins of the extreme western portion of the great stable, the bound-
aries, and the approaches. The digging was carefully watched and
measurements were taken daily, which during the evening were plotted
to scale. The results of this work, extending from July 28 to September
29, 1930, are preserved in the maps of the surveys, the photographs, the
blueprints of brick and mortar samples, elevations and bonding, sketches
and reports made by Mr. Shurclift.

Of the architectural pattern and the original layout of the estate Mr.
Shurclift said: "The findings have more than substantiated our early be-
lief that Stratford was laid out with a generous hand and was one of the
most interesting and imposing of the earlv places. Certainly we can sav
without hesitation that we are more strongly of the opinion now than
before, that the restoration is worthy of the devotion which has been
bestowed upon it already, and that the hopes which we have all had for
the ultimate beauty will be realized if we are willing to continue our
patient studv of the actual facts of the old design before we attempt the
restoration of the grounds.”

504 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Sufficient proof of the general location of the garden and some of its
structures having been provided through the Shurcliff survey, the exca-
vation work was suspended for a time while a careful study was made
of the records and findings resulting from the historical and archaeologi-
cal researches. The entire winter was spent in proving what the dis-
coveries meant.

In order to fit the garden to the house in time and manner, it was felt
that there was need for further evidence. Accordingly, the next step,
in the summer of 1931, was to have made a comparative study of con-
temporary gardens whose owners and builders were related to or had
close association with the Lees and Stratford.

Among the gardens in the neighborhood of Stratford which were
visited and studied were those of Mount Airy, Sabine Hall, and Wil-
liamsburg, as well as the site of Nomini Hall, the layout of old Belvoir
and Mount Vernon in Fairfax County. Also examined were the gardens
and grounds of Wye House on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with
which Mount Airy was so closely associated through the marriage of
Elizabeth Tayloe in 1767 to the fourth Edward Lloyd.

The Mount Airy gardens show striking similarities to the Stratford
layout as described by Alice G. B. Lockwood in Gardens of Colony and
State. The original garden square was divided into five levels and, ac-
cording to the plan, the sections nearest the house to the right and to
the left were formal parterres for flowers. Ramps led from one level to
another, and there were several ha-ha walls. Here was a large conserva-
tory or orangery of beautiful design. The garden was architecturally
planned in the formal manner and is one of great beauty and dignity,
the whole effect of approach, buildings, and grounds being markedlv
English.

A surviving example of another garden of the first half of the eight-
eenth century bearing many points of resemblance to the Stratford gar-
den was that of Sabine Hall. According to Mrs. Lockwood, this "is
probably the best early garden in Virginia, antedating Gunston Hall and
Mount Vernon, and not suffering as most gardens have from the mis-
fortunes of changing ownership.” The gardens of Sabine Hall retain
their early form, the writer continues, and "are designed within a long
rectangle, the main axis a central path, leading from the garden entrance
of the house; the rectangle is divided into six terraces and is an excel-
lent example of the garden form and fashion of its day; it still follows
the colonial customs of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and orchards. . . .

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS 505

The flower garden is filled with fragrant things, and spring brings thou-
sands of blooms from bulbs planted when the garden was new. A mag-
nificent English broadnut tree and a box hedge eight feet in height are
reminders of the years that have passed since it was laid out. There is a
tradition that the gardens were designed by English gardeners brought
here for the purpose. . . . ”G

Similarities of the Stratford garden with that of Mount Vernon are
in the octagon house foundations, examples of ha-ha walls, the formal
garden, the brick walls, levels, and grading.

In relation to Stratford gardens, it was concluded that the terrace just
west of the then existing garden wall, and within the yard area, was the
first of the original garden terraces. The outlines of three terrace levels
were faintly visible to the eye. The contour map prepared for the com-
mittee disclosed evidence of a terraced garden similar to those at Mount
Airy and Sabine Hall. It was found that the terraces terminated on the
east at the long foundation discovered in the summer of 1930 and identi-
fied in the summer of 1931 as the remains of an old garden ha-ha. The
back of this wall, as disclosed by the substantial pieces of masonry then
standing at the ends, was found to be roughly done in English bond,
while the face brick were laid in Flemish bond, with glazed headers
and lined joints identical with the base of the main house, thus establish-
ing it as one of the early garden walls. The purpose of the ha-ha was
not only to prevent access from live stock but also to allow an unrestrict-
ed view of a rather extensive prospect or vista of the countryside. It was
felt that when the tomb was built, many years after the construction of
the ha-ha, a stone wall was extended around the tomb to protect it from
cattle. Its foundations are shown on the Shurclift maps. Possibly when
the wall was built beyond the tomb, the need for the ha-ha no longer
existed, and it was filled in to secure easy access to the tomb from the
garden.

Descriptions of seventeenth and eighteenth century gardens in the
Williamsburg collection were made available to the Lee Foundation
through the cooperation of Harold Shurtleff. These notes added cor-
roborative evidence that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
there were many walled gardens in Virginia, as well as tree-lined walks
and avenues, and numerous greenhouses containing tropical fruits, rich
herb gardens, and "gallant orchards.”

"Reproduced from Gardens of Colony and State, with the permission of the author, Alice G.
B. Lockwood.

506 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

In the ruins of Belvoir, the old Fairfax home on the Potomac, exca-
vations by the U. S. Army Engineer Corps at Camp Humphreys7 dis-
closed evidence of parallel walls forming the boundaries of the old
garden, ending in two buildings, supposed to be summer-houses over-
looking the river.

Another early colonial home, Ash Grove, an old Virginia landmark
of Fairfax County, is described as a house "surrounded on all sides by
large graded and unbroken lawns. Only the rear lawn is divided from
the others by huge hedges of lilac, dense of growth and fully fifteen
feet high. In the spring, the masses of bloom fill the whole house with
fragrance. The dividing line of another lawn is suggested by huge
bushes of pyramidal box. To the rear a terraced garden of three levels
is reached by a flight of stone steps guarded by two mighty hollies.
These and the many other hollies of Ash Grove form its winter glory.
In the garden are remnants of the old plantings — snowballs, daffodils,
peonies, Madonna lilies, fleur-de-lis. . . . Chief among these treasures
are the Fairfax roses. ...”

A record of 1798 of Elizabeth Washington’s home, Hayfield, runs:
"On the east and south is a boxwood maze, neglected but still luxuriant
and beautiful; there are the remnants of a formal garden — mimosa trees
and ancient rose-bushes still blooming.”

Orangeries were typical structures of eighteenth century Virginia
gardens. Besides those at Stratford, Wye House, and Mount Airy, there
was at Westover "a pretty green house, well furnished with orange
trees.” At Green Spring, John Blair records in his diary, March 18,
1751, "fair but windy at Green Spring. We gather’d oranges.”

The study of contemporary gardens and their relation to Stratford
was painstakingly carried on throughout the year 1931. More pre-
liminary research had to be done before the structural work could be
launched.

Early in June of 1932 excavation and surveys of the garden area were
resumed under the direction of Mr. Morley J. Williams, a member of
the faculty of the School of Landscape Architecture of Harvard Uni-
versity. The work begun at Stratford by Mr. Shurcliff could now be
completed, the design created, and the structural work and planting
done.

The period covering the eighteenth century had been determined
upon by the Lee Foundation for the general plan of the restoration of

Tnitiated and directed by Colonel E. H. Schulz, U. S. Army.

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS 507

Stratford and the furnishing of the Great House. Through study of
comparative gardens and all of the researches up to that time, it was
evident that the Stratford gardens were laid out by rules set forth in the
seventeenth century books, representing the golden age of gardening in
England, and that those methods continued to be the prevailing prac-
tice in Virginia throughout the eighteenth century. Their conclusions
were confirmed by the investigations made by Mr. Williams, who found
that a walled garden of seventeenth century design had existed at Strat-
ford. Established beyond all question were the boundaries of the gar-
den, with its basic plan of the extension of the rectangle formed around
the Great House, the terraces and the view over the ha-ha. His research,
throughout June and July, yielded unexpectedly rich returns, as his
report connotes:

In undertaking research at Stratford, the first attempt . . . was to prove or
disprove the tradition that the garden had lain at the east side of the house,
and that it had been terraced.

An old brick wall crossed this area, running north from the smoke house.
Beside it was a small rise in the ground surface which is now the first terrace of
the new garden, as it was the first in the old. To the east of the old wall many
exploration trenches were run in intricate pattern. As a result of evidence
found in them it was possible to determine the location, height, and width of
two more of the terrace slopes of the old garden. Beyond these were found
fragments of a wall which eventually proved to be portions of the ha-ha wall,
originally the east boundary of the garden.

The north and south boundaries of the garden were indicated by traces, in
the soil, of old walls. The bottom levels of walls rose with the terrace rises, and
helped in fixing the height between terraces in each case.

In addition to thus reestablishing the limits of the old garden and the loca-
tion of terraces, it was possible to gain some idea of design detail. A portion of
the center path was found, also portions of two of the side paths and of a cross
path of the first terrace within the garden. It was also obvious that the center
path had gone from one level to another by means of a ramp. In the restoration
it was necessary to substitute brick steps for ramps, on account of the impossi-
bility of maintaining grass on the ramps under heavy traffic.

Between the first terrace slope and the house, where the great beech trees
now stand, there seems to have been a shady gravel covered area. Over most
of this area there can be found, just under the present sod, the uniform white
stones of an obviously selected gravel. The present beech trees seem by their ar-
rangement to be the remnants of the grove which originally shaded the entire
area. At the house there was a small walled terrace definitely outlined by the
brick wall foundations which remain in the ground.

The ground on the other three sides of the building was also investigated.
A ha-ha wall was found south of the mansion, which seems to have marked
the south boundary of the south lawn. It was crossed by two small bridges

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS 509

on which there seem to have been turn stiles. The remaining brick foundations
were of excellent workmanship and may have been very early.

The area north of the mansion seems to have been developed quite simply.
A lawn probably extended from the house to the back line of the two north
dependencies. Here a simple terrace slope joined the lawn and the field be-
yond.

A gift of two thousand bricks from the ruins of Peckatone, home of
Hannah Lee Corbin, was received from descendants of Hannah’s daugh-
ter, Martha Corbin Turberville. The bricks were hauled to Stratford
and stored there for possible future use.

That portion of the garden lying between the brick walls and the east
ha-ha was terraced and graded to conform to the old levels; and while
trenching the terraces, tons of well-rotted manure were worked into the
foundations of grass plots and flower beds, to settle over the winter and
be ready for spring planting.

The construction work in the garden began with the laying of founda-
tions for the north and south walls and the second ha-ha on the east
boundary near the tomb. The wall separating the house from the garden
was removed since it was not part of the original plan, and new walls
began to rise upon the site of the old ones. A water system, having its
source in the old spring referred to by Robert E. Lee as one of the spots
he loved as a child, was installed. The building of the south ha-ha on
the original foundations was completed, the sowing of grass seed on all
the garden terraces, the planting of box down the central garden walks
and of trees along the old road. This road, together with the colonial
roadway leading to the river, was studied bv Mr. Shurclifif, and stones
were set to indicate points where the cultivation of near-by fields might
erase the remains of the former roads.

General Lee’s description was: "The approach to the house is on the
south, along the side of a lawn several hundred acres in extent adorned
with cedars, oaks, and forest poplars. On ascending a hill not far from
the gate, the traveler comes in full view of the mansion, when the road
turns to the right and leads straight to a grove of sugar maples, around
which it sweeps to the house.” Traces of this road remain* and some
superb old trees, suggesting the existence of a circle or ellipse, usual in
the approach to colonial houses, as may still be seen at Mount Vernon,
Castle Hill, and other well-known places. Beyond this tree-lined ellipse

"These traces were followed in the reconstruction of the present road in the area south of
the mansion.

510 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

stretched another planting of trees on either side of broad lawns direct-
ing the eye to the south boundary of the estate.

Thus a pattern for the vista to the south was obtained. The lawns
mentioned by General Lee were, according to country tradition, close-
cropped by sheep, in the Virginia fashion, and furnished pasture for
the thoroughbred horses and cattle owned by the Lees of Stratford. The
vista to the west appears beyond the level area of the home enclosure
where the ground slopes down to a ravine, with a charming hill beyond
and the western sky for background.

The north vista to the river according to Mr. Williams’ design was
an outstanding feature of the restoration of the grounds. Almost a mile
long, it led to the Potomac directly from the depths of the ravine in
front of the north entrance of the mansion, through the forest, up hill
and down, to the edge of the cliffs. As it approached the water, ac-
cording to a statement of Carter Lee,9 it broadened out to a vast extent,
opening a beautiful and extensive river view.

The ha-ha wall separating the house from the fields at the south front
— the main approach to Stratford today, designed by Mr. Kimball — was
built. This wall was destroyed in the eighteen-forties when Elizabeth
McCarty Storke remade the gardens. The restored wall, according to
Mr. Kimball, "is a true ha-ha, and that is to say it does not rise at all
above the old grade of the lawns, which it is proposed to restore as in
the new grade. In other words, one looks out from the house without
interruption, and yet cattle are effectually prevented from wandering to
the home-lot. To keep people from falling off the little bridges, I have
shown a post and chain along each side of them. Then it is only neces-
sary to have a little gate at the end of the bridge, and this I have de-
signed along the lines of the one still surviving at Bremo. The ha-ha
wall was built with brick of the earliest type — probably in the time of
Thomas or Philip Ludwell Lee. We would accordingly restore it with
the Jamestown brick — the closest match to the old brick of the house
itself. These are brick with glazed headers, but in this wall they were not
arranged in a regular pattern, and still occur here and there.”

Meanwhile, in the Stratford grounds outside the garden area, a
marked improvement was taking place under General Cheatham’s di-
rection. The fields between the mansion and the county road were
fallowed and seeded with a mixture of clover, timothy, orchard grass
and blue grass to form permanent lawns. About sixty young tulip pop-
lars, such as lined the entrance road to Nomini Hall, were planted in

"Statement to writer by Mrs. Mildred Lee Francis, daughter of Charles Carter I.ee.

THE GARDENS, GROUNDS AND ORCHARDS 511

double rows along the course of the old road, thus making the vista to
the south after the Morley Williams plan.

An herb garden was planted in the enclosure by the old kitchen. The
fig tree was trimmed and fertilized, walks were made, and the center
paved with cobblestones after the early manner. Lilies of the valley
were planted around the fig tree. Growing close to the walls are the
three kinds of herbs for physic, pot, and distilling (such as were in
everyday use in the eighteenth century), among them parsley, thyme,
sage, rosemary, spearmint, terragon, tansy, lavender, chives, mint, sum-
mer savory, and catnip. Later hollyhocks and nasturtiums were added
for their color.

When the brick cistern was cleaned out, pieces of glass, porcelain,
china, and pottery were found, with metal fragments of manv kinds,
including the ivory handle of a table knife. These were boxed and
labeled for future examination and placed with other articles unearthed
in the Shurcliff excavations.

The reconstructed orchard comprised the broad stretch of ground
sloping beyond the north wall of the garden toward the ravine where
the old spring still gushes forth. In more recent years this area had
been an unsightly pasture for cattle. The design for the orchard was
taken from that of Towlston in Yorkshire, England, an old English
plan of the seventeenth century, in quincunx, with apples in solid rows,
a pear walk down the middle, and cherry trees nearest the box walk.
Quinces, apricots, peaches, and plums add to the wealth of color and
fragrance throughout the varying seasons. This orchard at Stratford is
a rare specimen of the early colonial orchard of Virginia. Its combina-
tion of both artistic and utilitarian qualities lends a special interest to
the layout and the planting.

The Stratford orchard was always a source of interest and pleasure
to Ann Carter Lee. In one of her letters to Mrs. Richard Bland Lee,
she says: "I have done myself the pleasure of procuring the grafts Mr
R. Lee wrote for. You will receive three kinds of plums, thev are re-
markably fine, particularly the red plum. ...”

Descriptions of seventeenth and eighteenth century Virginia orchards
reveal many of the charming qualities that must have also been charac-
teristic of the original Stratford orchard.

As far back as 1686, when Stratford was "the Clifts,” William Fitz-
hugh, one of the neighboring "barons of Potomac,” speaks of his own
"large Orchard, of about 2,500 Aple trees most grafted, well fenced with
a Locust fence, which is as durable as most brick walls, a Garden a

512 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

hundred foot square, well pailed in, a yeard wherein is most of the
foresaid necessary houses, pallizado’d in with locust Punchens — '

Another seventeenth century record from a land grant describes
George Menefie’s plantation: "His large garden 'contained fruits of
Holland and Roses of Provence’; his orchard was planted with apple,
pear, and cherry trees, and he cultivated here the first peach trees intro-
duced into America. Around the house grew, in the fashion of the time,
rosemary, thyme, and marjoram.”

Still another note of the late sixteen hundreds, relating to the planta-
tion of Captain Williams Pearce, mentions that "she” (doubtless re-
ferring to the captain’s wife) "had a garden at Jamestown, containing
three or four acres, where in one year she had gathered a hundred
bushels of excellent figs.”

The Virginia planter, William Mayo, writes in 1731 to a friend in
Barbados: ". . .1 shall take what care I can about propogating the
Fruit Stones, I have had Plum stones from England and planted them
here ... I have had Peaches from the Stones you gave me . . . it is a
good Peach and Large ... I shall plant good Store of May Cherry
Stones (others I have enough) if they come up as I hope they will . . .
I have some young Trees now growing and some black damasons, I am
promised this winter some plum and Morello Cherry Trees.”

In late September of 1933, all construction work was completed. The
flat, weed-grown area, straggling beyond the east wing of the mansion
was transformed. The rebuilt walls enclose the garden space now
definitely marked, four hundred feet long by two hundred wide, the
main axis running from the house west to east descending four terraces
to the ha-ha wall, beyond which rises the restored House Over the Vault.
Broad graveled walks and low brick steps, where the grass ramps used
to be, lead from one terrace to the other. Down the middle walk and
around the oval in the center, a box hedge has been set, and patterns of
small box outline the parterres, on one of which is wrought in box the
design of the Lee coat-of-arms after the fashion of the day. Wooden
gateways, reminiscent of the seventeenth century gates at Green Spring,
lead through the openings of the high brick wall, on the north side to
the orchard and on the south into the Kitchen Garden and the service
tract. Holly bushes stand at the gates of the first level, snowballs at the
second, and lilacs further on. Old-fashioned perennials are growing
from seeds imported from England. Many of the fragrant blossoming
shrubs and flowers once radiant at Stratford bloom again in the borders
by the walls.

CHAPTER XXVII: STRATFORD HALL: A NATIONAL SHRINE

SEVEN years went by. Stratford, waking from oblivion, began once
more to take a part in the life of the countryside. During the first
period of ownership by the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation,
the work of restoration and preservation presented to every visitor an
interesting record of change and progress.

Frequently people questioned "Why was this never done before?”
Yet the very fact that it had not been done proved the salvation of Strat-
ford. Had the restoration of the Great House been undertaken prior to
the twentieth century, says Homer Eaton Keyes, "it probably would have
meant applying improvements according to the advanced notions of
1870 rather than restoring in all fidelity the structure of pre-Revolution-
ary days and entreating the return of its relinquished spirit.

"Strangely, almost mysteriously, a long succession of untoward cir-
cumstances saved Stratford from the curse of modernization, until the
coming of the propitious moment, in 1929, when the Robert E. Lee
Memorial Foundation secured possession of the property and, under
wise direction, began to organize systematical Iv for its complete and
historically correct rehabilitation.

"The procedure to date has been of a kind to inspire confidence in the
management of the undertaking and to encourage its liberal support. A
movement is afoot to make the place something more than a frozen
exhibit maintained in a state of exquisitely suspended animation. Strat-
ford on the Potomac will be not only restored; it will be reawakened
and revivified. Spinning, weaving, blacksmithing, and all the other arts
and industries pursued upon a Southern plantation of two hundred years
ago will be carried on, partly by way of demonstrating the manner of
life led by our forefathers, partly for the sake of encouraging old tradi-
tions of handcraftsmanship. From the start to finish, the Foundation
plans though expressive of a fine idealism, are reinforced with practical
wisdom and sound common sense. Years must, of course, elapse before
Stratford Hall can reassume in full its eighteenth-century aspect of
serene and gracious majesty amid the ecstasy of shining gardens.”1

A medium of expression for the purposes and ideals of the Lee Foun-
dation has been evolved through four public gatherings at Stratford
each year, when the part that Stratford and its people have taken in

'“Stratford on the Potomac,” Antiques, Volume XXIII. Number 5, May, 1933, pp. 175-177.

[513]

514 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

American history is made vivid through the words of men and women
who have written about it. Biographers and historians, military men,
educators, poets and essayists pay their tribute at these gatherings. Al-
most always, and quite informally, some recently discovered original
letter or document, often bearing an intimate message, is read, or anec-
dotes and conversations handed down only by word of mouth are told.
Thus the gatherings keep fresh in the public mind ever increasing
knowledge of Stratford and the Lees.

As Robert E. Lee was born at Stratford on January 19, 1807, the first
of the quarterly celebrations is set for January nineteenth of each year.

The program for the spring meeting which takes place early in May
centers upon his parents, Light-Horse Harry Lee and Ann Carter Lee,
whose betrothal was announced in May, 1793. Certain of the most in-
teresting and significant findings of the Foundation’s Research Com-
mittee have been publicly presented at this particular celebration, such
as the first documentary evidence proving that Corotoman in Lancaster
County was Ann Carter’s birthplace. A picture of Ann Lee was painted:
" . . . and yet when you see her you do not require the consideration of
her suffering to give interest to her. Her simple dignity, her most ad-
mirable understanding & manners excite enough of admiration without
any appeal to sympathy. ...” This contemporary description found in
an old letter of September 6, 1821, was read by Ann’s great-grand-
daughter, Alice Lee Harvie.

Each Fourth of July commemorates the patriot brothers of Stratford
— the two signers, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee, and
Thomas Ludwell, William and Arthur Lee. As the home of the mover
of the Declaration of Independence, the Great House will ever be linked
with Monticello on Independence Day. The more the role played by the
Stratford Lees during the American Revolution becomes known the
more is Stratford identified in the public consciousness as one of the
source influences in the nation’s making.

The last celebration of the year is a service of remembrance held on
the anniversary of General Robert E. Lee’s death, October 12, 1870,
when the memorial address to Lee, written by Sidney Lanier, is read.
The poet’s tribute has helped to serve the Foundation as guide and light
from the beginning of its work in preserving Stratford.

On Stratford ground the once divided nation is reunited as in no other
place in America. That no geographical limitations curtail the expres-

Mrs. George Washington Parke Custis (Alary Lee Fitzhugh), first mistress of Arlington
House, mother of Airs. Robert E. Lee: from the original portrait by an unknown artist,
now in the possession of Dr. Bolling Lee.

516 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

sion of tribute to Robert E. Lee is shown by the very list of the states
enrolled by 1935 under the Lee Loundation:

Alabama

Mississippi

Arkansas

Missouri

California

New Hampshire

Colorado

New Jersey

Connecticut

New York

Delaware

North Carolina

District of Columbia

Ohio

Llorida

Pennsylvania

Georgia

Rhode Island

Kentucky

South Carolina

Louisiana

Tennessee

Maine

Territory of Hawaii

Maryland

Texas

Massachusetts

Virginia

Michigan

Washington

Minnesota

West Virginia

On the sixty-fifth anniversary of General Lee’s death, October 12,
1935, Stratford Hall was dedicated to the memory of Robert E. Lee and
his Westmoreland kinsmen. Thus there was established, in the words of
President Roosevelt, "a permanent memorial to a brave, young civiliza-
tion for which modern America will always be grateful.” The crowd
gathered hours before the ceremonies began. People came from the
North as well as the South — from the East and the West.

Poliowing the invocation by Bishop Harry St. George Tucker, Gov-
ernor George C. Peery in the name of Virginia welcomed an audience
of several thousand people. "Virginia is rich in shrines of deep and
abiding interest,” he said, "... the old Commonwealth has given birth
to many men who achieved eminence and distinction. The places of
their birth and the homes in which they lived have become shrines to
those who have followed after them. . . . We are happy today in wit-
nessing the restoration of this shrine to the nation, and in joining with
you in its dedication. ... As the memory of Washington is honored
also by the shrines made of Mount Vernon and Wakefield, so too it
seems meet and proper that the hero of the Confederacy should receive
a like honor. . . . Happily the splendid women who are devoting them-

STRATFORD HALL: A NATIONAL SHRINE 517

selves to this labor of love have not been limited to any one state or
section of states. With singular industry and devotion they have brought
their hopes and plans to full fruition, and we meet here today to join
with them in the dedication of these historic premises.”

The author of R. E. Lee, Douglas Southall Freeman, who perhaps
knows the Confederate leader in spirit more intimately than any other
biographer, gave the dedicatory address, saving in part: "You have
come this afternoon to this calm shrine of spacious memories to do much
more than to give thanks to God that the spiritual victor of a conquered
cause who died sixty-five years ago today is as much alive as when he
stood on Seminary Ridge or spurred his horse into the Bloody Angle.
You have come to do more than to celebrate with high rejoicing the
extinction of the debt on Stratford. You have come to admit a new
obligation as you discharge an old. It is one thing to say that Stratford
belongs now to the American people; it is another to assure the future
of this property by improvements that will defy time and by endow-
ments that disaster cannot destroy. I know I do not depress you when
I say that at least as much as has been expended already must be de-
voted hereafter to this enterprise. Acquisition is only the first step to-
ward perpetuation.

"Yet this reminder does not dim the splendor of one of the most re-
markable achievements of our day. Two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars have been raised and paid during a period when the heat of
adversity has dried up many of the fountains of beneficence. Precisely
as the Northern States took pride in the fact that the construction of the
capitol in Washington continued throughout the War between the
States, so we may find significance in the fact that the great depression
has witnessed, here in this one State alone, two such notable enterprises
as the restoration of Williamsburg and the purchase of Stratford. There
could have been no more dramatic expression of your faith in the future;
no more positive evidence of your conviction that our age is not break-
ing with the past, but is making that past a part of our inspiration for
the future.

"It is a fact of high import that the first and the most recent labors to
preserve the homes of great Americans should both have been in West-
moreland. This county is the Western Attica, the birthplace of a larger
number of notable men of the past than ever saw the light in an area so
small. . . .

Mary Ciistis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee.

STRATFORD HALL: A NATIONAL SHRINE 519

"... You ladies of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation have the
honor to dedicate Stratford; we who are here as your guests can make
you no better offerings of thanks than to rededicate ourselves, and our
children and our children’s children, to the nation’s old ideals at these
eternal corner stones of Stratford.’’

Ranged on either side of the south entrance in line formation, stood
the Governor’s guard, The Richmond Blues, and near them, the Thir-
teenth Engineers’ band of the United States Army from Fort Belvoir.
Next to the grandson and great-grandson of General Lee was the frail,
bent chaplain of the Army of Northern Virginia, Major Giles B. Cooke,
aged ninety-eight and the last survivor of Lee’s staff. Seven years before
Major Cooke, acting for the Lee Foundation, had handed its check in
part payment for Stratford to the last individual owner of the Great
House. Since that July day of 1929, every dollar of indebtedness on
the place had been paid bv the Foundation, and Stratford, dedicated
now to the public, was about to enter upon a new stage of its history —
one of the nation’s enduring shrines. With Major Cooke’s pronounce-
ment of the benediction the dedication ceremonies came to a close.

i i i 1

On an antique table in the Great Hall lies the gold and scarlet-bound
Book of the Contributors to Stratford Hall through the Robert E. Lee
Memorial Foundation. In hand-illumined letters are recorded the names
of the founders and all other individuals and organizations aiding in
the purchase, research, restoration and maintenance of Stratford as a
memorial to "Our Beloved Great Commander:”

ROBERT E. LEE

Born January the nineteenth, 1807, at Stratford Hall,
Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Died October the twelfth, 1870, at Washington College,

Lexington, Virginia.

i i i i

To the United States of America from 1829 to 1861 he gave in military ser-
vice the best years of his life, receiving at length the offer to take command of
the army that was to be brought into the field.

To the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865, as Commander of
the Army of Northern Virginia, he gave military and spiritual leadership that
placed him among the greatest generals and the noblest men of history.

To the reunited nation from 1865 to 1870, as President of Washington
College, he gave a generous service, healing the wounds of North and South
alike.

Robert E. Lee in dress uniform of a Lieutenant of Engineers (about 1831). Portrait'
credited to Benjamin West, Jr.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS
I. GENEALOGICAL CHARTS
Prefatory Note

Confirmation of the descent of the first Richard Lee of Virginia from the
Shropshire Lees is found in a family Bible formerly at Colonel Lee’s last Vir-
ginia home, Cobbs Hall, Northumberland County. In its pages are entries of
the births, deaths, and marriages of the Lees of Cobbs Hall. 'The first entry,”
says H. Edward Forrest, antiquarian of Shrewsbury to whom the photographic
record was sent, by a member of the Lee family, "states explicitly that Colonel
Richard Lee was son of Richard Lee of Nordley Regis in Shropshire and that he
died at Dividing Creeks in the County of Northumberland, Va., March 1, 1664.
Neither the date nor place of death were exactly known hitherto. . . . This de-
cided the issue.”1

For several years Mr. Forrest had been engaged in studying the genealogical
records of the Lees in England for a member of the Society of the Lees of Vir-
ginia. There was the inevitable "missing link” to be found in order to prove
the relationship of the first Richard Lee of Virginia to his supposed forbears of
Shropshire, England— the connecting link which several generations of genea-
logical students in the Lee family had been seeking in vain. The records in the
old Lee Bible provided the long missing link.

Further proof of Richard Lee’s Shropshire descent is found in the wooden
coat of arms of the Coton Lees once on the front door of the original Cobbs
Hall. These same Lee arms of Shropshire are also shown in the engraving on
a silver cup donated in 1658 to Queen’s College, Oxford, by Colonel Richard
Lee's eldest son John, a student there.

On the tombstone of the second Richard Lee are the words: "descended of
an ancient family of Merton-Regis in Shropshire.” Surviving correspondence
between the second Richard’s son, Thomas Lee, and his Shropshire cousin,
Lancelot Lee, head of the family at Coton, during the years 1740-45 is further
evidence of a close relationship. Thomas Lee’s son, William, in his account of
the family and especially of his great grandfather, the first Richard, wrote that
he "was of a good family in Shropshire.”

The bookplate of Philip Ludwell Lee, made about 1746, and a seal ring be-
longing to Richard Henry Lee show the Coton arms.

"The estate of Stratford" in Essex, England, which was ordered sold by the
terms of Colonel Richard Lee’s will was not one of the Lee ancestral homes but
was the farm acquired and occupied in 1599 by his father, Richard Lee of Nord-
ley Regis, Shropshire.

In Essex and adjacent counties other families of Lee had been seated for
many generations. They were prominent in the early annals of that region and
in the medieval history of England. Their relationship, if any, to the Lees of
Shropshire and to Colonel Richard Lee of Virginia has never been determined.
The fact that Richard and Gilbert Lee had residence in Essex, however, has led
to some confusion and uncertainty and to the publication of erroneous state-

1 Magazine of the Society of the Lees of Virginia, Vol. XIII. No. 1, May. 1931. pp. 10-11-12.

[521]

522

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

ments. The findings of the College of Arms disclose the facts about the par-
entage and ancestry of Richard Lee of Virginia.

Of the Shropshire antecedents of Colonel Richard Lee, Mr. Forrest writes:
In our present quest we are concerned only with the later generations of the
family, and that branch of it which was seated at Nordley Regis (King’s Nord-
ley) in the parish of Alveley, Shropshire. This estate came to the Lee family in
the reign of Richard II through the marriage of Roger Lee, son of Robert Lee
of Roden2 ... to Margaret, daughter and heiress to Thomas Astley of Nord-
ley. Hence the Lees of Nordley quarter the arms of Lee and Astley. Roger Lee
and Margaret Astley had a son, John Lee, who married Joyce Packington and
Nordley descended to their great-grandson Humphrey Lee of Coton or Cotton
Hall. He built the mansion at Coton which thence forward became the family
seat instead of the old house at Nordley. He must have lived to a great age,
for at his death in 1589, his son and heir, John Lee of Coton, was 59 years old
and had a grown-up family. It is with this same family that we are mainly con-
cerned, for there exists a body of evidence that one of his sons was father to
Colonel Richard Lee, the founder of the Lees of Virginia.

I devoted my attention to finding out all available details concerning John
Lee and his eight sons, (l) Thomas, (2) Gilbert, (3) Jasper, (4) Richard,
(5) Edward, (6) Ferdinand, (7) William, (8) Josias. I found that Jasper,
Edward, Ferdinand, and William died without issue, William before 1605; the
other three before 1621. The eldest son, Thomas Lee, inherited the paternal
estates, which were held by his descendants till early in the nineteenth century.
The youngest son, Josias Lee, was executor to his father, John Lee, and was
with him when he died at Latimers, Chesham, Bucks, in 1605. He married
Mary Grosvenor and died without issue in 1640.”

The Lee Pedigree recording the English ancestry of the Virginia Lees, ac-
cepted by the College of Heralds, London, England, bears the signature of
Arthur Cochrane, Clarencaux King of Arms, November 1, 1933. Prepared by
Mr. Forrest, this record traces the English ancestry of the Lees of Virginia in
direct line from the Conquest to the third generation in America.

The Pedigree per se is not reproduced in these pages. Full record of all
marriages listed in the document is not included, such record beginning with
the marriage of "Roger de la Lee, lord of Roden, sheriff of Shropshire to
Margareta, daughter and heir of Thomas Astley, of Nordley, co Salop, Regis
1423-1424.”

Certain dates of birth, marriage and death not in the chart and names of the
plantations of the Virginia Lees are added to the records of the line of the
first Richard Lee.

The genealogical charts of the Lees of Virginia appearing in this record are
based on data from The Lee Pedigree approved by the College of Heralds,
London, England; A Record of the Descendants of Col. Richard Lee of Vir-

2“Robert’s brother, Roger Lee, married Petronilla Lee — a distant cousin — only child and
heiress of Roger Lee who had married Joan Burnell, from whom descended the Lees of Langley.
The pedigree is wrong here: it makes Robert Lee the son of Roger and Joan ; actually he was
son-in-law'.” — Magazine of the Society of the Lees of Virginia. Vol. VIII, No. 1, May, 1931,
pp. 5-6.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

523

ginia, by C. F. Lee and J. Packard, Jr., the first printed genealogy of the Lees
of Virginia; records in Lee of Virginia compiled by Edmund Jennings Lee and
Joseph Packard, Jr.; genealogical studies made for this work by Lucy Brown
Beale; and from transcript of the English record made by Marian H. Adding-
ton.

Record of the Line of the Mount Pleasant Lees was contributed by Thomas
Alexander Lee, lineal descendant of George Fairfax Lee, the son of Colonel
George Lee (of London and Virginia) and Ann Fairfax (Washington) Lee,
widow of Lawrence Washington of Mount Vernon.

English Ancestry of the Virginia Lees

WARIN THE BOLD

HUGH FITZWARIN
HUGO de LEGA

REYNER REGINALDUS de la LEE

JOHNS de LEE

SIR THOMAS de la LEE OF LEA [HALL] & ALDERTON

THOMAS de la LEE OF STANTON (d. 1318)

JOHN LEE OF STANTON AND OF BERRINGTON

JOHN LEE OF RODEN

ROGER de la LEE, lord of Roden, sheriff of Shropshire, mar. Margareta, dau. and heir of Thomas
Astley, of Nordley, co. Calop, Regis 1423-1424

JOHN LEE OF NORDLEY, ancestor of the Lees of Nordley and Coton, mar. Jocosa, dau. of
Packington

JOHANNES LEE de NORDLEY in co. Salop mar. Elizabetha, dau. and coheir of Thomas Corbyn

THOMAS LEE of Kings Nordley, parish of Aiveley, co. Salop (d. 16 Mar. 1526) mar. Johanna
(Joan) dau. of Robt. Morton of Houghton co. Salop

HUMPHREY LEE of Cotton Hall, manor of Kings Nordley (d. 6 Dec. 1588) mar. Katherina, dau.
of John Blount of Yeo (Eye) d. 1591

JOHN LEE of Coton Hall (aged circa 59 in 1588/9) mar. Joyce, only dau. of John Romney of
Lulsley, co. Worcester, bur. Aiveley, 4 Dec. 1609

Thomas William Edward Gilbert RICHARD

Mentioned in Chancery suit 1610 — j Elizabeth Bendy

as having life interest in farm at | married at Aiveley apd.
Aiveley apd. Bapt. at Aiveley 21 Oct. 1599.

6 Oct. 1563. Ment<! in Wills of
his father 1605 and brother Gil-
bert 1621. (Left Aiveley to live
at Stratford Langthorne, Essex. )

Note: .John Lee of Cotton or Coton Hall and Joyce Romney his wife had eight sons of whom five are men-
tioned in this transcription. Of Gilbert Lee the record states he was of Tolleshunt, Darcv, Co. Essex;

that his will was dated April 12. 1621. the year of his marriage to Elizabeth ; that lie

was a leather merchant trading with Virginia, and that his ship fought the Spanish Armada.

524

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Richard1 Lee of England and America

Note : Richard1 Lee was son of Richard Lee and Elizabeth Bendy Lee of Alvelev in Shropshire and Strat-
ford Langthorne in Essex.

— ANN men<L in her Edmund

husband's Will Lister

1663/4 married

before
24 Sept
1666.

— John Lee of Virginia (circa 1645-1673)
af<L Exor of father's Will
1665. Matric Queens Coll.

Oxon 31 Tuly 1658. B. A.

1662

— RICHARD11 LEE OF COPLE, Westmoreland County LAF.TITIA daur. of Henry

Virginia (1647-1714) Menfl. in Wills of father 1663/4 Corbyn, Died 6 Oct. 1706

& brother 1709. bur<L at Burnt House Fields Mount burd. at Burnt House
Pleasant, Westmoreland County. M. I. there Fields apd. M. I. there

Will dat. 3 Mar. 1714. pH. at Westmoreland Co:

27 Apl. 1715

— William Lee (about 1651-1697-8) men. in father's
Will 1663/4

— Hancock Lee of Ditchley (1653-1709) mentT in
father’s Will 1663/4 <3>

— Charles Lee of Cobbs Hall (1656-1675)

Virginia. Born there 21 May 1665.

Elizabeth mencL in father's Will 1663/4

Ann (d. 1701) mend. in father's Will 1663/4

Frances Lee of London (1648-1714) mend, in
father's Will 1663/4. Burd. at St. Dione’s
Backchurch co: London 10 Nov. 1714. Will
dated 9 July 1709. prd. 23 Nov.r. 1714 P. C. C..

RICHARD1 LEE of Stratford Langthorne Co. Essex and —
of Virginia in America. Secretary of State &
Colonel in army in Virginia Died at Dividing
Creek, Northumberland County, Virginia 1 Mar.

1664. Will dated 6 Febry 1663/4 proved 10 Jan.

1665. P. C. C. (Ancestor of Lees of Virginia).

3Haneoek Lee was ancestor of Zachary Taylor, twelfth President of the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

525

Richard" Lee of Cople (or Matholic)

RICHARD- LEE (1647-1714-15) — — LAETIT1A CORBYN (1657-1706)

- — Richard3 Lee of St. Olave Hart Street co. London
(1678-9-17-8) menT in Wills of father 1714
& uncle 1709. Died circa 1718 in par. of
St. Anne’s Westminster. Admon of goods granted

2 Jan. 1718/9 and 16 Nov1 2'. 1724. Founder of
Mount Pleasant line of Lees

— Philip" Lee (1681-1744) men'1, in father's Will 1714. Founder
of the Maryland line of Lees, ancestor of Thomas Sim Lee
(1745-1819) Revolutionary Governor of Maryland

— Francis" Lee (d. about 1749) men1', in father's Will 1714

— THOMAS3 LEE ( 1690-1750) men'1, in father's Will 1714

(m. 1722 HANNAH HARRISON LL'DWELL of Green Spring)
Founder of Stratford line of Lees

—HENRY3 LEE (1691-1747) men'L in father's Will 1714 (m. MARY BLAND)

Founder of Lee Hall line of Lees

— ANN3 (circa 1683-1732) wife of William Fitzhugh, men'1

in father’s Will 1714. mar 2d Daniel McCarty: Ancestress of

William Fitzhugh of Chatham, William Henry Fitzhugh of

Ravensworth, and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis (wife of George

Washington Parke Custis of Arlington). Issue: Mary Ann Randolph Custis,

m. Robert E. Lee.

Note: The first born child of Richard and Laetitia Fee — a son named John — died in infancy.

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528 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

2: RECORDS OF THE MOUNT PLEASANT LINE OF LEES

Mount Pleasant bears a close relationship to Stratford since it was the first
home of the Lees in Westmoreland County and was so long associated with
Thomas and Hannah Lee. Then too the intimate connection of the Mount
Pleasant line of Lees with the Fairfax family of Belvoir on the Potomac and
with the Washingtons of Mount Vernon lends a special historical interest
and distinction to this branch of the Lee family.

The original house on Matholic Plantation of which Mount Pleasant was
a part, was the home of the second Richard Lee and his wife Laetitia (Corbin)
and the birthplace of all their children, including Thomas Lee. At Richard’s
death its ownership was vested in his eldest son, the third Richard Lee, then
living in England. He leased Mount Pleasant to his younger brothers, Thomas
and Henry, and it served as the temporary home of Thomas and Hannah Lud-
well Lee during the period Stratford Hall was under construction. When in
1713 Thomas Lee was appointed by Lady Fairfax, her Northern Neck agent, he
established his land office at "Mt. Pleasant.” Here, according to Virginia Land
Grants, ' in many instances he recorded maps of the surveys as well as the
descriptions of his grants.”

George Lee, only son of the third Richard Lee and Martha (Silk) Lee and
heir of his estate, was born in London, August 18, 1714. He came to Virginia
in the early seventeen-thirties and took possession of Mount Pleasant. The
new house on this property, according to notes compiled by Lucy Brown Beale
from the Westmoreland Records, was evidently built for George Lee by his
uncle, Thomas Lee, shortly after the burning of the original house in 1729-
About a mile distant from Burnt House Fields, it stood on the brow of the
hill on a portion of the Matholic estate and on a level with Lee Hall, home of
the first Henry Lee.

Like his Stratford cousins, Colonel George Lee held various official positions
in Westmoreland County: justice of the peace, deputy clerk, and finally burgess.
In 1755 he was a vestryman of Cople parish. He took an active part in the
militia of that section in protecting the frontier and river settlements from
Indian and pirate raids, serving successively as captain, major, and at length
colonel of Westmoreland.

His first marriage, which took place in his twenty-fourth year, September
30, 1738, was to Judith Wormeley, daughter of John and Elizabeth Wormeley,
of Rosegill on the Rappahannock. Their two children were: Richard, born
August 13, 1739 (died in infancy), and Elizabeth, born November 21, 1750
(died unmarried 1828). Judith Wormeley Lee died June 8, 1751. Colonel
Lee’s second marriage, December 17, 1752, was to Ann (Fairfax) Washing-
ton, daughter of Honorable William Fairfax of Belvoir and the widow of
Lawrence Washington of Mount Vernon. Three sons, all of whom were born
at Mount Pleasant, were the issue of their marriage: George Fairfax5 Lee, born
February 24, 1754; Lancelot5 Lee, born January 19, 1756; William5 Lee, born
November, 1758 (died 1838).

5Lee of Virginia, p. 140.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

529

Ann’s estate, Mount Vernon, was leased after she married Colonel Lee, to
her deceased husband’s younger half-brother, George Washington, for some
eighty-two pounds annually, attorned to Lee of Mount Pleasant. Nearly a
century before Ann Washington’s ownership of Mount Vernon the property
had belonged to the first Richard Lee by colony grant: "On November 26, 1660,
Castleton’s dividend likewise was included in a new patent to Col. Richard
Lee, Esq., Counsellor of State. With other lands elsewhere, this Lee patent called
for a total of 4,000 acres in three parcels, for which were returned as head
rights 'eighty negroes.’ ” This title by colony grant to the estate in which
Mount Vernon (as later named) was included, was devised by Colonel Lee’s
will in 1663/4 to his five younger children. About nine years after his death
however Lee’s title was superseded by the Culpeper grant to Spencer and
Washington.4

Colonel Richard Lee’s son, the second Richard, or Richard the Scholar” as
he is termed in family annals, inactive and unconcerned in business affairs,
seems not to have been aware of the circumstance for in his will 1714/15, he
devised this same land to his only daughter, Ann Lee, wife of William Fitzhugh
of Eagle’s Nest. Through the Culpeper grant the "Little Hunting Creek,” or,
as later named, the Mount Vernon tract, among others, became indisputably
Washington property. John Washington devised it to his son Lawrence who
left it to his daughter Mildred. On May 17, 1726, Mildred and her husband,
Roger Gregory, executed a deed of release for this land (for a consideration)
to her brother Augustine. Augustine Washington bequeathed the estate to the
elder son of his first marriage, Lawrence Washington, who, in turn left it to
Ann Fairfax, his wife, for her life and at her death to go to his younger half-
brother, George Washington."'

Ann Fairfax Lee died March 14, 1761. George Lee survived her but a few
months. He died November 19, 1761. In his will he wrote: ''First, I desire I
may be buried decently but without any pompt, in my garden, as near to my wife
as possible.”

To their eldest son, George Fairfax Lee, he bequeathed "the tract of land I
live on” [Mount Pleasant] besides two other parcels of land, one of which "is
known by the name of the Burnt House tract, which was held by the late
President, the Hon^e Thomas Lee, Esquire. . . . ” Colonel George Lee also
left to his eldest son "one hundred head of neat cattle and such other stock
as my Ex’ors. shall think necessary for his plantation.” George Lee’s sentiments
toward his cousin, Richard Henry Lee, are expressed: Item, I give unto my

good friend, Col° Richard Henry Lee my Staunton gun.”

Reference to the portrait of the second Richard Lee (later to hang in Strat-
ford Hall) is made in this further list of bequests to George Fairfax Lee and to
his other children: I also give my said son the Quilt worked by his Mother,

all his Mother’s and my books, my Grandfather’s Picture and my Father’s
Picture set in gold, the mourning ring I expect from England for his Mother,
all the plate in the house. Col. Fairfax’s Snuff Box, and George’s Mother’s
stone buttons set in gold which are in the said Snuff Box. Item, I give to my

4For complete details see Landmarks of Old Prince William and Virginia Land Grants.

530

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Daughter Elizabeth the Mourning Ring which I wore for her late Mother, as
also the great Bible and Common Prayer-Book which were her Mother’s. Item,
I give to my son Lancelot Lee a seal set in gold with the family coat of arms
cut thereon which was given to me by my friend Col. Richard Lee. Item, I
desire that my charriot and charriot horses and all blooded horses, mares and
colts may be sold, but that in order to have them sold to the greatest advantage
the time and place of sale be advertised in the Virginia Gazette. Item, I desire
that all my household furniture and other personal estate except what is speci-
ally given by this my last Will, and Except such stock as my Executors shall
think proper to keep for the use of my said sons’ plantations, may be sold for
the most that can be got for them. Item, I give to my son William Lee two
guineas to purchase him a mourning ring for his Mother. Item, such stocks
as my Executors shall think proper to be kept for my sons Lancelot and Wil-
liam and all the rest of my personal estate, after my debts and legacies are
paid, I give to my sons Lancelot and William, to be equally divided between
them, when Lancelot shall arrive to the age of twenty-one years, but if either
of my said two sons die before they arrive to the age of twenty one years with-
out issue, then I give the whole to the Survivor.”

By his father’s instructions, George Lairfax Lee was educated in England at
Christ’s College, Cambridge. According to family records, William Lee, of
Stratford, then of Great Tower Hill, London, exercised a kindly interest in the
welfare of his young kinsman. After his return to Westmoreland, George
Lairfax married "the widow Travers” and continued to make his home at
Mount Pleasant. Here he lived until his death in December, 1804, when he
was buried in the garden of the old estate, as were his wife and children, all
of whom, excepting a daughter (who left no issue) predeceased him. In his
will George Lairfax Lee bequeathed the ancestral family seat to his brother
Lancelot, the sole member of the Mount Pleasant family who left issue whose
descendants, in direct line, are living today.

The continuation of the family record, heretofore unpublished in any docu-
ment, is as follows:

Lancelot Lee, second son of George and Ann Lairfax Lee, married Mary
Bathurst Jones. Their children were:6

I. Lancelot0 — died unmarried

II. Sallie Lairfax6 — married Robert Sangster

III. Elizabeth6 — married Col. James Chipley

IV. Nancy6

V. Thomas William6

Thomas William Lee6 — married Harriet Hutcheson. Issue:

I. William Lairfax7

II. Martha7 — married Judge Richard Cockerille

III. Mary Elizabeth Jones7 — married George Washington Mellon

IV. George Washington7 — born Leb. 1, 1831

V. Philip De Catesby7

“This record is not complete.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

531

William Fairfax Lee7 — born Jan. 18, 1824, married Caroline Higgs. Issue:

I. Thomas*

II. Richard Henry*

III. George Washington8

IV. William8

V. Bertha*

VI. Ludwell8

VII. Lily8

George Washington Lee7 — married Elizabeth Tillinghast Alexander, June
1, 1853, died in 1901. Issue:

I. Thomas Alexander8 — born Oct. 22, 1855

II. Leila Bathurst8 — born Sept. 8, 1858, married Washington Lee

III. Helen Sigismunda8 — born May 8, 1861, married A. J. Skinner, 1883

and died in 1929.

IV. Ida* — born May 22, 1863, died unmarried June 6, 19.30

V. Robert Alexander8- — born Aug. 18, 1886

VI. Lancelot Bathurst8 — born Sept. 26, 1869

VII. George Washington8 — born Oct. 30, 1871

VIII. Lyla Clark8 — born Oct. 29, 1873, died unmarried, 1923

IX. Mary Eugenia8 — born Feb. 5, 1875, married Philip B. Parke, 1898

X. Maud Earl8 — born Feb. 28, 1877, married, first Lincoln Johnson,
1896, then Osce Marstellar

Philip De Catesby Lee7 — married Maria Mason. Issue:

I. Harriet8

II. Seddon Mason8

III. Philip Lancelot8

IV. William H.8

V. Beverly8

VI. Bernard Hooe8

VII. Nannie McLean8

Thomas Alexander Lee8 — born Oct. 22, 1855, married Caroline Clagett
Wattles, June 23, 1881. Issue:

I. Ellen Wattles9— born April 1 4, 1882, married James Rutherford
Craighill, June 18, 1901

II. Thomas Alexander9 — born April 18, 1883

III. Caroline Tillinghast9 — born Dec. 23, 1886, married Col. Chauncey S.
McNeill, U.S.A., Feb. 1, 1910

Robert Alexander Lee8 — born Aug. 17, 1886, married three times. Last wife,
Cecilia Ford. He died Sept 2, 1934. Issue by last wife:

I. Hildreth9 — born Feb. 10, 1921.

II. Alice Virginia9- — born May 9, 1923

Lancelot Bathurst Lee8 — born Sept. 26, 1869, married Adele Buckley. Issue:
I. Eleanor9
II. Margaret9

III. Elizabeth9

532

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

George Washington Lee8 — born Oct. 30, 1877, married Viola Hill. Issue:
I. Elizabeth9 — born in 1921
II. George Washington9 — born in 1930

Thomas Alexander Lee9 — born April 18, 1883, married Vera Neebone in
1912. Died February 20, 1920. No issue. Lieutenant in Medical Corps, United
States Army, in World War and buried in Arlington Cemetery. Awarded
Medal for Service in World War.

3: NOTES ABOUT STRATFORD-LANGTHORNE

The one time village of Stratford-Langthorne in Essex is today a part of East
London. It is the site of great wharves, docks and warehouses. At the time
Richard Lee of Alveley moved there it was a ward in the Parish of Westham
about a mile from Stratford-Bow on the road to Essex. A link of bright his-
toric record binds Stratford Hall, the Great House of Richard Lee’s descendants
in Virginia with that of his birthplace in England. Stratford Langthorne, was
originally a part of the demense lands of the ancient manor of Westham the
history of which reaches back into medieval England. According to Daniel
Lyson’s The Environs of London, this ancient manor was originally the site of
the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne, founded in 1135 by William de Montfichet,
and dissolved with all possessions in 1539- The name Langthorne was derived
from the long thorns, or brushwood gathered by the monks in Windsor Forest.

The manor passed then into the hands of the crown. It was granted in 1616
to Sir Francis Bacon for ninety-nine years in trust for King Charles I, then
Prince of Wales. In 1629 the lease of the manor was assigned to the trustees of
Queen Henrietta Maria as a part of her jointure, and in 1636 the Forest Court
was summoned to sit there. Later the manor was the possession for her life-
time, of Queen Catherine of Portugal, Consort of King Charles II, being part
of her dowry. By Queen Catharine it was leased to Sir Richard Sandys. There
is a break in the record at about the period when Richard Lee left Shropshire.

An interesting description of Stratford as it was about the time when Thomas
Lee visited London appears in John Macky’s A Journey Through England (Vol.
I, pp. 23-24):

"About two Miles, from Wanstead, in my way to London, is a large Village
call’d Stratford, where there are above two hundred little Country Houses for
the Conveniency of the Citizens in Summer; where their Wives and Children
generally keep, and their Husbands come down on Saturdays and return on
Mondays. I thought my self here in Holland again, the Houses having all Rows
of Trees before their Doors, with Benches to sit on, as there, and little Gardens
behind.”

4: RECORD OF THE LUDWELL FAMILY

Record of the Ludwell family from a true copy of the original affidavit writ-
ten by Thomas Jefferson on July 6, 1778, in Paris, certifying as to the family
and estate of Mrs. Lucy Ludwell Paradise:

We Thomas Jefferson, Minister plenipotentiary for the United States of Amer-
ica at the Court of Versailles certify to all whom it may concern:

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

533

That we are personally and well acquainted with the Family of Mrs- Lucy Para-
dise, Wife of John Paradise esquire with their connections and condition:
That the said Lucy was born in the State of Virginia, in the Lawful wedlock of
her Parents of a Christian Family and educate[d] in the Christian Religion:
That her Father the Honourable Philip Ludwell esquire was a native of the
same state of Virginia, was a member of the Royal Executive Council, of the
General court, the supreme judicature of the State, and a visitor of the
college of Williamsburg of Public foundation:

That her great-Grandfather the honourable Philip Ludwell esquire, was Gov-
ernor of the neighboring state of Carolina that is to say, the immediate Vice-
regent and Representative of the King, in ordinary and extraordinary:

That her mother was of the family of Grymes: her uncle on the mother’s side,
the Honourable Philip Grymes esquire was Receiver General of the King, a
member of the Royal executive council, and of the General court the Supreme
judicature of the State:

That her grandfather on the same side, the Honourable Philip Grymes esquire,
was secretary of the State, a member of the Royal executive council and of
the General Court the Supreme judicature thereof:

That in that country no distinction of ranks has ever been admitted at all, much
less to be made hereditary:

And all this we certify of our own knowledge, so far as the facts are of our
own times, and so far as they are of earlier times we have learnt them from
the Public records and History of the State, and from the constant uncontra-
dicted reputation of that country, of which we are native born.

With respect to the said John Paradise esquire, heretofore resident in the King-
dom of Great Britain, lately removed to Virginia and become of our Personal
acquaintance, we can certify his personal worth only, which is great, and his
condition, which is that of a Gentleman, and citizen of the State of Virginia,
invested with all the rights of that character, and capable of all the offices
and honours of that country, and received a Visitor of the same College of
Williamsburg of which his Father in Law, Philip Ludwell before named was
a Visitor. His Family is unknown to us but by reputation which has repre-
sented it as well distinguished by wealth and office in England.

Given under our hand and Seal at Paris in the Kingdom of France this 6th
day of July in the year of our Lord 1788.

Th. Jefferson.

.Seal.

The above is a true copy from the original in my possession in the hand writing
of Thos. Jefferson and signed by himself and the seal of state attached
thereto.

Philip [ ?] Barziza

Rec.d Alex.a Aug. 2C> 1841 [by Charles Carter Lee]

Found in the collection of original letters and papers of Charles Carter Lee.
Placed at the disposal of the author by Dr. Henry Lee. This copy not collated
with the original.

534 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

5: CHIPPOKES PLANTATION

Chippokes Plantation is on the south side of James River, opposite the lower
end of Jamestown Island. Sir William Berkeley received a grant of the prop-
erty in 1643 and from him it passed to his widow and thence to the Ludwells
and Lees. It was inherited by Lucy Grymes Ludwell, one of the two daughters
of the third Philip Ludwell, who in 1769 married John Paradise of London,
and later returned to Virginia. During the last part of the eighteenth century
and the first decade of the nineteenth Chippokes was her country seat and
Paradise House, in Williamsburg, her town residence. At her death her nieces,
Cornelia and Portia Lee, succeeded to the ownership of Chippokes. The historic
plantation today is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Victor W. Stewart.

6: THE DEED OL 1732 TO CHANTILLY

Thomas Lee bought Hollis’ Marsh and Hollis Cliffs (later named Chantilly)
from Samuel Hallows in 1732, the year that Lee’s son, Richard Henry, was
born. The deed recording the transaction is on file in the Westmoreland Court
House at Montross and is as follows:

Samuel Hallows of Asworth in the County of Lancaster Esq. of the one part
and Thomas Lee of potomack in the County of Westmoreland, Colony of Vir-
ginia, Esq. of the other part — For £ 46 1 — 5 — 0 to said Samuel Hallows in hand
paid by the said Thomas Lee said Hallows hath Bargain & Sold unto said
Thomas Lee all that tract of Land, being on potomack river, parish of Cople —
consisting of about 2400 Acres of Land plantable and 260 Acres of Marsh the
same being divided into several plantation with all houses, buildings &c. be-
longing— said land patented by Maj. John Hallows late of Virginia, dec’d and
descended to his daughter Restitute and was lately recovered by the said Samuel
Hallows from the heirs of John Manley.

Wit: Arthur Hamilton
Isaac Green
Will Huson.

Received on the day of the date of the within written Indenture and from or
by the order of the within named Thomas Lee the sum of £ 46l — 5 — 0 being
the consideration money within mentioned to be paid to me — Samuel Hallows.

On motion of said Thomas Lee said deed was Recorded April 19 173.3

G Tubervle C. C. W.

Even at the present day the old names cling to the spot: Hollis’ Marsh; All
Hallows Marsh, Hallows Marsh Plantation, Hallows Cliffs, Hollis Cliff, the
lands of Restitute Hallows.

7: WILL OF THOMAS LEE

The last will and testament of Thomas Lee is an interesting and revealing
document. The will is dated 22d February, 1 749 ■ It was probated in Westmore-
land County July 30, 1 731.

In the name of God, Amen. I, Thomas Lee of Stratford in the County of
Westmoreland in Virgina, Esquire, President and Commander-in-chief of the
said Colony being thanks be to God of sound Perfect and disposing sence and

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

535

memory; do make and declare this my Last Will and Testament, all written in
my own hand this twenty-second day of February in the year of Our Lord God
one thousand seven Hunderd forty and nine, 1749-50. First, my soul I doe
resign with all Humility and Sincerity to the Lord God of the Heavens, my
Creator, from whom my sinfull flesh received it in steadfast hope of mercy and
forgiveness of all my sins and offences by the sufferings and merits of his
beloved son Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of all men. Amen. Amen.
Amen. As to my Body, I desire if it Pleases God that I dye anywhere in Vir-
ginia if it be Possible I desire that I may be buried between my Late Dearest
wife and my honoured Mother and that the Bricks on the side next my wife,
may be moved, and my Coffin Placed as near hers as is Possible, without moving
it or disturbing the remains of my Mother. Having observed much indecent
mirth at Funerals, I desire that Last Piece of Human Vanity be Omitted and
that attended only by some of those friends and Relations that are near, my
Body may be silently intered with only the Church Ceremoney and that a Fu-
neral sermon for Instruction to the living be Preached at the Parish Church near
Stratford on any other Day.

In the next place I desire my Ex’ors to pay all my just Debts without delay
or Trouble, all but Trifles may be found on my Book.

Item. I give and devise to my Eldest son all my Lands in the Countys of
Westmoreland and Northumberland to my Eldest son and the heirs male of his
body lawfully begotten forever, and for want of such Issue to my second son
and the heirs male of his Body Lawfully begotten forever, and for want of such
Issue to my Third son and the heirs male of his Body Lawfully begotten for-
ever, and for want of such Issue I give the said Lands to my Eldest son and
his Heirs forever, and my will is, and upon this Express Condition it is that I
have Entailed these Lands on my second and third sons, in Case of Failure of
heirs male, that my second or third sons to whom these Lands shall descend do
Pay respectively to the Heirs female of my Eldest or Second son as the Case
may be two Thousand Pounds sterling which either the second or third sons
failing to doe I revoke those gifts and then as Heirs it will descend to the
Female Issue of my Eldest son as I desire it shou’d.

Item. I give and bequeath to my Eldest son and his heirs forever all my
Lands on the Eastern Shoare of Maryland and called Rehoboth, my two Islands,
Moreton and Eden in Cohongaronto or Potomack, 3,600 on the broad run of
Potomac and to include half the good Land on Cohongaronto or Potomac
which is my first Patent, Survey by Thomas Stooper Surveyor and all my Land
at or near the falls of the Potomac in three Patents or deeds Containing in the
three Patents above 3,000 acres, all these Lands, I give my Eldest son in fee
simple and I give my said son all the Utensils on the said Lands.

Item. I give and bequeath to my second son and the male Heirs of His Body
Lawfully begotten forever, the remainder of all my Lands between Goose or
Lee Creek and broad Run joining to the Land I have given my first son, all the
Lands I hold on Difficult run except 800 acres hereafter given to my fourth
son, all my Land in the County of Stafford all wch Lands I give to my second
son in Tail male as af’s’d, and in Case of failure of such Issue then I give all

536

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

the said Lands to my Eldest son in tail male, and for want of such Issue to my
third and other sons in tail male upon this Express Condition that which ever
of my sons these Lands Descend on for want of male Issue of my second son,
that such son shall before he enters on the said Lands pay to the Female Issue
of my said second son fifteen hundred pounds sterling, otherwise the gift to all
but my second son to be void.

Item. I give and bequeath to my third son and the heirs male of his Body
Lawfully begotten forever, all my Lands in Prince William County Containing
by deed from the Prop’rs Office 4,200 acres more or less, and in case of Failure
of such Issue to my fourth and other younger sons in Tail male, and whichever
of my sons shall take by virtue of this Gift, I will and direct shall pay Female
Issue of my said third Son one thousand pounds Sterling before entry into the
said Lands, which if he fails to doe then I declare my gift to him to be void.

Item. I give and bequeath to my fourth son and the heirs male of his Body
Lawfully begotten forever all my Lands on Horse Pen run and Stallion Branch
and 800 acres of Land his choice in any one Place out of my Lands on Difficult
run in Fairfax County, but my meaning is that he shall chuse it on any one
side of the Land, and not in the middle, my design being to give him a Con-
ven’t Place to live on with a good Spring and high Ground, and for want of
Issue as above I give the said Lands on horse pen Run to my third son in tail
male, and to my other younger sons in tail male, but with this Proviso that
whichever son takes these Lands other than my fourth shall before he enters
Pay to the Female heirs of my Fourth son Eight Hundred Pounds Current
money and in case he fails the Gift to be void, and for want of such Issue male
as af’r’d I give the 800 acres on difficult to my second son in tail male and for
want of such Issue to my Eldest son in fee.

Item. I give to my Daughter Alice one thousand Pounds sterling to be paid
her at twenty-one years of age or day of marriage and till such time I desire
her a reasonable maintenance, board and education out of my Estate.

Item. Whereas I have a long Lease of Land in Cople Parish in which the
fee is in my Nephew George Lee, my will and desire is that my Eldest son do
Convey to ye said George Lee all my right to the said Land to the said George
Lee in tail male for the consideration of three hundred Pounds Sterling first to
be paid by the said George Lee to my said Eldest son, and in Case of failure of
male Issue of the said George Lee that the said Lands return to my Lawfull
Heir male he paying to the Heirs Female of the said George Lee a proportion
of the said three hundred pounds Sterling as shall be with relation to the time
to Come in the said Lease from the time of the said Purchase money being paid,
but one acre where my Hon’d Father is Buryed is not to be in this Purchase and
sale, but remain as on the first sale to me, not to be disposed of upon any pre-
tense whatsoever.

Item. To my fifth son, I give one thousand Pounds Sterling to be paid at
Twenty one years of age, and till then to be maintained and Educated out of my
Estate. Item. To my sixth son, I give one thousand Pounds Sterling to be paid
at twenty one years of age, and till then to be maintained and educated out of
my Estate. Item. I desire and impower my Ex’ors who I appoint Guardians to

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

537

my children to educate my children in such manner as they think fitt Religiously
and virtuously and if necessary to bind them to any profession or Trade, soe
that they may Learn to get their Living honestly. Item. I give my stock in Trade
in Company with Col. Tayloe and Mr. Anthony Strother to which of my two
youngest Sons my Ex'ors shall think fitt, such son paying to my two Daughters
Hannah Corbin and Alice and the other Brother to each a fourth Part of the
Stock in money or Bills and in such time as my said Ex’ors shall think fitt. Item.
I give my share in the Stock in trade and the Profit of the Land to be granted
by Virtue of the King’s Warrant to my second son he paying on every Division
made by the Company one equal third part of the Profitts of his share to my
third and fourth sons to each an equal Part with himself, or this gift to be void
and he only to come in for one third to be paid by the Comp’y and one third to
each of his two Brothers af’s'd. Item. Whereas I have given to my Eldest son
one Share in the said Company both Trade and Land which I paid for him in
the Stock in Trade I hereby Confirm my said Gift Absolutely.

Item. I give to my Eldest son one hundred Negroes above ten years old and
all of and under that age on the Lands I have given him but what above a 100
yt are above ten yrs old to be divided as hereafter is mentioned, and in this Gift
to make up the numbers, I give all my Tradesmen, all which Negroes young and
old I annex to the Land given my Eldest son to pass and Descend with the
said Lands as the Law Commonly Called the Explanatory Law directs. Item.
I give to my second son, Fifty Negroes above Ten years of age and all the young
ones of and under that age that are on the Lands I have given him annexed and
to descend as the Land I have given him does. Item. I give to my Third son
Forty Negroes above ten years of age and all of yt age and under yt are upon
the Lands, I have given him annexed and to Descend as the Lands I have given
him. Item. I give to my Fourth son Thirty Negroes above Ten years of age and
all of that age and under that are on the Lands I have given him to be annexed
and descend as the Land I have given him. Item. The Profits of the Naval
Office according to my Contract wth Col. Richard Lee, I give to my two youngest
sons equally and to the survivor of them.

Item. My Will is and I accordingly desire yt my whole Estate be kept together
till all my debts and Legacies be settled and Paid. Item. I will and Devise yt
if any of my younger children dye before twenty one yt in such case that Legacy
be p’d in equal parts to such other as live to be twenty one, that is my two
daughters and my youngest sons. Item. I give to my Second Son my Gold watch
and seal. Item. I Give all the Rest and Residue of my Estate to my Eldest son
and his heirs forever, and the several Bequests and Legacies heretofore given I
give in lieu and full satisfaction of their Filial portions and so I desire it may
be taken and understood, and I hope I have Expressed so plainly that a Lawyer
will not find room to make Constructions prejudicial to my Family. Item. I devise
and Bequeath to my Five younger sons two hundred pounds each towards build-
ing and Finishing each a house and this legacy I design and order to be paid
before my Estate is Divided. Item. I hereby appoint my Friends and Relations,
Richard Corbin, Esqr, my Eldest son Philip Ludwell Lee, my son-in-law Gawin
Corbin. Esqr, and my second son Thomas Ludwell Lee, my Ex’ors and Guar-

538

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

dians to my children. Item. I give to each of my sons and Daughters a mourn-
ing ring of five pounds Sterling value. Item. I give to my second son the mourn-
ing ring I had for Col. Grymes. Item. I give to my third son the mourning ring
I had for Col. Lightfoot. Item. I give to my Eldest Son the ring Col Custis gave
me in his life time. Item. I give to my third son the mourning ring I had for
Col Tayloe.7

8: THE LEE FAMILY BURYING GROUNDS IN WESTMORELAND

a. "The Family Burying ground at the Burnt House Fields”

b. The Cemetery Stratford

"The family burying ground at the Burnt House,” as designated by Richard
Henry Lee in his will, is located at Hague, Westmoreland. This is the acre in
Burnt House Fields mentioned in Thomas Lee’s will where "my Hon’d Father is
Buryed,” and which he instructs to have set apart as a burial place.

After the fire of 1729, when Thomas Lee and his family lived at Matholic, the
place was called "Burnt House Fields” or simply "the Burnt House,” — a name
by which it is still known and from which the family graveyard derived its name.

According to E. J. Lee, "This burying ground was certainly used for several
generations as the family burying place.” Yet, when he visited the site in May,
1894, there was but one tombstone to be seen. This was the marble slab over
the grave of the second Richard and Laetitia Lee. All other graves — and there
were many there — were unmarked and even the enclosing wall had disappeared.
Among the Lees known to be buried there were Thomas and Hannah Ludwell
Lee and their son Richard Henry Lee.

The restoration of this old family graveyard was undertaken during the dec-
ade, 1922-32, by the Society of the Lees of Virginia. According to a theory in
the Lee family, the white marble slab to mark the grave of Thomas Lee was
doubtless carved in England and shipped in the seventeen-fifties to Stratford
Landing with "the parti-coloured marble” for the monument to his memory,
erected at Pope’s Creek Church. The slab was evidently brought no further
than the Stratford cemetery, however, for here it remained for about two hun-
dred years, giving rise to the impression that Thomas Lee was buried at Strat-
ford. The Lee Society removed the 600 pound marble slab to Burnt House
Fields early in November, 1922, and placed it over the graves ascertained to be
those of Thomas and Hannah Lee.

In the bi-centennial year of the birth of Richard Henry Lee, 1932, the Society
placed over his grave — unmarked since his burial there in 1794 — a memorial in
white marble inscribed in lettering similar to that on his father’s tombstone.
The brick wall of the old graveyard was rebuilt on its original foundations, but
was extended to include the graves of Richard Henry Lee and his wives which
were on the outside of the enclosure.

The graves of at least eight members of the family have been identified: Rich-
ard and Laetitia Lee, Thomas and Hannah Ludwell Lee, an infant (probably

7E. L. : John Tayloe, Esq., of Richmond County in his will dated the 3d of January, 1744,
left his “friend and kinsman,” Col. Thomas Lee, a mourning suit, a ring, and £100 ; in a codicil
dated 31st of January, 1744, he gave him £150 additional, also a mourning ring to Mrs. Hannah
Lee, and to the testator’s kinsman. Col. Henry Lee of Westmoreland, £50.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

539

their son John, born in 1729, who died shortly after birth), Richard Henry Lee,
Anne Aylett, his first wife and Anne Pinckard, his second wife.

The inscription on the tombstone of Richard Lee has been recently recut.
A transcript of this memorial made for Bishop Meade and published in his Old
Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia has been generally quoted. Many
errors which it contains have been corrected in a recent version:

Hie Conditur Corpus Richardi Lee Armigeri
Nati in Virginia Filii Richardi Lee Generosi Ex
Antiqua Familia in Merton Regis in Comitatu
Salopiensi Oriundi.

In Magi stratum Oheundo Boni Publici Studio sis smi
In Literis Graecis & Latinis & Alijs Humanionis
Literaturae Disci p/inis V ersatissimi
Deo Ouem Summa Observantia Semper Coluit Animam
Tranquillus Reddidit Xll"w- Die Marti] Anno
MDCCXIV. Aetat LXVIII.

Hie Juxta est Corpus Laetitiae Ejusdem Uxor is
Fidae Henrici Corbin Generosi Liber or um
Matris Amantissimae Piet ate Erga Deum Char it ate
Erga Egenos Benignitate Erga Omnes Insignes Obijt
Octob. Die VI Aetatis XLIX.

Here lyeth the body of Richard Lee Esq.1 born in Virginia son of Richard Lee Gentle-
man descended of an Antient family of Mertin Regis in Shropshire while he exercised the
Office of a Magistrate he was a zealous promoter of the Public good. He was very skillfull
in the Greek and Latin Languages and other parts of Polite Learning. He quietly resign’d
his soul to God whom he always devoutly worshipped, the 12th- day of March in the year
1714 in the 68 year of his age. Here lyeth the body of Lettice his faithful wife a most
tender mother of her Children daughter of Henry Corbin Gentleman, she was eminent
for piety towards God Charity towards, the poor and kindness towards all, she died the 6th-
of Ober. 1706 in the 49th- year of her age.8

Since the transcript of the inscription on the tombstone of Thomas Lee, also
quoted in these pages from Lee of Virginia, has one or two slight variations
from the original, the lines are herewith reproduced in their precise form:

Here lies Buried
The HonHe Col. Tho.s Lee
Who dyed Nov. I4.th 1 750
Aged 60 Y ears.

And his beloved Wife
Mrs HANNAH LEE
She departed this Life
January 25. th 1 149/50
Their Monument is Erected
In the lower Church of
WASHINGTON Parish
In this County 5 Miles above
Their Country Seat
STRATFORD HALL

8Vol. X, No. 1, September, 1936, pp. 60-61.

540 STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

The Cemetery at Stratford

Ihe family burying ground at Stratford was located in a grove of forest trees
a short distance eastward from the walled garden. A large part of the history
of the Great House was written on the vanished stones, the unmarked graves
in this enclosure and in the vault. Here, according to the Virginia custom, the
Lee owners and occupants of Stratford, after the death of Thomas and Hannah
Lee, probably buried their dead at least four decades before Light-Horse Harry
Lee built the mausoleum, or the House over the Vault, in 1790.

In the absence of record of the burial place of Richard, eldest son of Thomas
and Hannah Lee, his sister Lucy, three successive owners of Stratford, and three
heirs presumptive who died in infancy or youth, the assumption is that they
were buried on the estate. It is logical to accept this as proof until evidence to
the contrary is produced.

A list of the Lees known to have died at Stratford and who were without
doubt interred there, follows:

The first Philip LudwelP Lee — second owner of Stratford

The second Philip Ludwell5 Lee — third owner of Stratford

Matilda5 Lee — fourth owner of Stratford

Nathanael Greene6 Lee, first born child of Henry5 and Matilda5 Lee — heir
presumptive

Algernon Sidney6 Lee — first born child of Henry5 and Ann Carter Lee

Margaret7 Lee, only child of Henry6 and Ann McCarty Lee — heir presumptive

To the writer’s knowledge no record exists that the first Philip Ludwell Lee
was buried in any place other than Stratford. With the exception of Richard
Henry Lee, who specified in his will his wish to be buried at Burnt House
Fields, all of the other sons and daughters of Thomas and Hannah Lee were
buried elsewhere, either in the family graveyards of their respective homes or
in places adjacent to them. Thomas Ludwell Lee was doubtless buried at
Bellevue. Francis Lightfoot Lee’s grave, with that of his wife Rebecca Tayloe,
is at Mount Airy, adjoining Menokin, his home. William, who died at Green
Spring, his home, was interred in the churchyard at Jamestown. Although Arthur
expressed in his will a wish to be buried in the graveyard near his parents, this
was impracticable for the reason that he died in December at Lansdowne on
the Rappahannock. In the absence of record that he is buried at Burnt House
Fields, family tradition ascribes his grave to be in the garden at Lansdowne.

No will nor any written instructions for burial were left by Philip Ludwell
Lee. Even had he wished to be buried at Burnt House Fields, it might have
been impossible. He died at Stratford on February 24, 1775. It was twenty
miles to Matholic and over bad roads — roads almost impassible for a funeral
cortege in midwinter. Furthermore, his widow was delivered of a son at 'the
time of his interment” and it is unlikely that her husband was buried where
she could not go.

Of the death and burial of Philip’s son, the second Philip Ludwell, the only
records are family tradition and Carter Lee’s statement — to his daughter Mil-

Note: The third Philip Ludwell” Lee died in Richmond but was undoubtedly buried beside
his mother in the vault at Stratford.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

541

dred — that the child was killed prior to 1780 by falling down the great stone
stairway of the mansion. His mother would undoubtedly have had him buried
close by their home.

When Matilda, the fourth owner of Stratford, died, a mausoleum in her
memory was built by her husband, Light-Horse Harry Lee. Judging from the
large size of the vault, it was evidently designed to contain the bodies of all
the members of the family hitherto buried in that area. That they were interred
within its apartments or alcoves is apparent from many sources: descriptions
in old newspapers examined by the writer and statements by Uncle West and
neighbors of Stratford.

In his Old Churches , Ministers, and Families of Virginia, Bishop Meade says
in reference to the vault at Stratford: "I have been assured by Mrs. Eliza Turner0
who was there at the time, that it was built by General Harry Lee. The cemetery
is much larger than any other in the Northern Neck, consisting of several
apartments or alcoves for different branches of the family. Instead of an arch
over them there is a brick house, perhaps twenty feet square, covered in. A
floor covers the cemetery. In the centre is a large trapdoor, through which you
descend by a ladder to the apartments below. I went down into it some years
since. ...” Bishop Meade’s reference to the apparent number of bodies
entombed in the Stratford cemetery confirms other similar statements as well
as the county tradition. He points out: ''The entrance to this house has of late
years been almost prevented by a thick growth of young aspens and briers. I
am happy to state that it is the purpose of the present proprietor to fill up the
vault, take down the brick walls and convert them into a mound over the place,
and on top of the mound to have the tombstone of old Thomas Lee fixed in
some immovable way.” (Vol. II, p. 170.)

During the latter years of Mrs. Storke’s occupancy of Stratford, bricks from
the structure and possibly gravestones and monuments were pillaged just as
they were from the churchyard of Pope’s Creek Church. According to Uncle
West, when the roof of the House over the Vault in Stratford cemetery was
about to fall in, Mrs. Storke ordered the tottering walls pulled down. Thus the
recesses and alcoves deep under ground were open to the elements and the
graves and all marks of identification were gradually obliterated. People living
in the county today are familiar with these facts.

By the year 1928 a broken arch over the subterranean alcoves and scattered
piles of brick were the only surface remains of the vault. Some of the trees
growing from the ruins were six inches in diameter. When the exploratory
excavations of the cemetery by the Lee Foundation took place in 1934-35, out
of the debris but one body was recovered.

The restored House over the Vault is a memorial to Matilda and the other
members of the family buried at Stratford.

9: THE BAPTIST SOCIETY IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA

According to information received from Professor R. E. E. Harkness, Ph.D.,
President of the American Baptist Historical Society at Crozer Seminary, Ches-

9Mrs. Eliza Turner was doubtless a member of the King- George County Turners mentioned
by Ann Carter Lee in her correspondence as intimate friends of the Stratford family.

542

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

ter, Pennsylvania, the form of marriage ceremony used by the Baptists in colonial
Virginia was presumably that adopted by them in England during the Common-
wealth period. This, Dr. Harkness surmises was for the following two reasons:

1. The Regular Baptists came direct from England to Virginia and would
doubtless bring the form with them from the old country.

2. The fact that the authors of the Memorial speak of this form in their
petition to the Convention.

Dr. Harkness contributes the following material found in histories of the
Virginia Baptists:

Excerpts from A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia,
Richmond: Published by the author. John Lynch, Printer. 1810 Robert B.
Semple.

"Under the old ecclesiastical establishment, no person could celebrate the
rites of matrimony, but a minister of the church of England, and according to
the ceremony prescribed in the book of common prayer. Cases, however, fre-
quently occurred, especially during the war, where the marriage ceremony was
performed by others. This gave rise to an act of October, 1780, which declared
all former marriages celebrated by dissenting ministers good and valid in law;
and authorised the county courts to license dissenting ministers of the gospel,
not exceeding four to each sect to celebrate the rites of matrimony within their
counties only. It was not until the year 1784, that the dissenters were put on
the same footing as all other persons, with respect to celebrating the rites of
matrimony. By this act the marriage ceremony might be performed by any
minister licensed to preach, according to the rules of the sect of which he
professed to be a member.”

Note: This occurs in Beale’s revision and extension of Semple on page 53.

Page 71-72 of Semple’s original:

"It was then consulted, whether it would not be desirable to establish among
Baptists some uniform mode for the solemnization of marriage. Upon which,
it was resolved to adopt and recommend the form laid down in the common
prayer book, leaving out a few exceptionable parts.”

Note: This occurs in Beale’s revision and extension of Semple on page 97.

Excerpt from T he Struggle for Religious Liberty in Virginia. By Charles
Fenton James. J. P. Bell Co., Lynchburg, Va ., 1900.

"Secondly, the Solemnization of Marriage, concerning which it is insinuated
by some, and taken for granted by others, that to render it legal it must be
performed by a Church Clergyman, according to the Rites and Ceremonies
of the Church of England ; conformably to which Sentiment Marriage Licenses
are usually worded and directed. Now, if this should in Reality be the Case,
your Memorialists conceive that the ill Consequences resulting from thence,
which are too obvious to need mentioning, render it absolutely necessary for
the Legislature to endeavour their Removal. This is an Affair of so tender a
Nature, and of such Importance, that after the Restoration one of the first
Matters which the British Parliament proceeded to was the Confirmation of the
Marriages solemnized according the Mode in Use during the Interregnum and
the Protectorate of Cromwell. And the Propriety of such a Measure in Virginia

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

543

evidently appears from the vast number of Dissenters who having Objections
against the Form and Manner prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, pro-
ceed to marry otherwise; and also that in many Places, especially over the
Ridge, there are no Church Parsons to officiate. On the other Hand, if Mar-
riages otherwise solemnized are equally valid, a Declaratory Act to that Purport
appears to your Memorialists to be highly expedient. . .

The following references to the marriage laws in Colonial Virginia were
compiled for Chapter X of this book by Marian H. Addington:

Vol. II, pp. 50-51, March, 1661-62:

THAT noe marriage be sollemnized nor reputed valid in law but such as is
made by the ministers (c) according to the laws of England. . . .

Vol. XI, p. 504, October, 1784:

III. And be it further enacted , That it shall and may be lawful for the people
called quakers and menonists, or any other Christian society that have adopted
similar regulations, in their church, to solemnize their own marriages, or to be
joined together as husband and wife, by the mutual consent of the parties
openly published and declared before their congregations when convened for
religious worship, in the manner and agreeable to the regulations that have
heretofore been practiced in the respective societies.

Vol. XI, p. 504, October, 1784:

And whereas some magistrates and others, not authorized by law, have been
induced by the want of ministers, to solemnize marriages in the remote parts
of this state,

IV. Be it enacted, That all such marriages heretofore openly solemnized and
made, or which shall be so made before this act shall take effect, and have been
concummated by the parties cohabiting together as husband and wife, shall be
taken, and they are hereby declared good and valid in law; and every person or
persons solemnizing such marriages, are, and shall be exonerated from all pains
and penalties as if they had been authorized ministers.10

10: THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANN HILL CARTER

According to the Virginia tradition, Shirley on the James was the birthplace
of Ann Hill Carter, the mother of Robert E. Lee, but documentary evidence
brought to light within the past two years indicates that she was born at Coroto-
man in Lancaster County.

Through the marriage in 1723 of Robert or King” Carter’s eldest son, John
(Ann Hill Carter’s grandfather), to Elisabeth Hill of Shirley, the historic
James River estate became associated with the Carter possessions. John (''Sec-
retary”) Carter (1690-1743) was thereafter known as "John Carter of Coroto-
man and Shirley,” a designation borne eventually by his son and heir, Charles
Carter, who was born in the early 1730’s.

H. T. Wickham says the John Carter family lived a great portion of the
time at Shirley.” No doubt they also stayed at intervals at Corotoman, the
Carter ancestral home. When John Carter died, he devised the use of certain

ia7'he Statutes at Large; being a collection of all the Laws of Virginia. . . . By William
Waller Hening. Richmond. 1810-1823. Vols. IT. XI.

544

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

James River properties to his wife Elisabeth during her life "with remainder
to his son Charles,” a minor.11 Corotoman on the Rappahannock was left out-
right to Charles.

Elisabeth Hill Carter, John’s widow, married Bowler Cocke and continued
to live at Shirley. Charles Carter made Corotoman his home. His first marriage,
in the early 1750’s was to his cousin, Mary Carter of Cleve; his second, shortly
after Mary’s death in 1770, was to Ann Butler Moore of Chelsea.

Charles Carter’s mother died in June, 1771 — about a year after his second
marriage. Bowler Cocke remained at Shirley but survived Elisabeth scarcely
three months. Carter planned then to move from Corotoman to Shirley but he
could not secure immediate possession of the estate on account of legal com-
plications arising from claims entered by Cocke’s heirs. Carter brought suit
against Cocke’s executor and litigation was in progress until spring of the fol-
lowing year. Not until December, 1772, did Carter secure the rights he sought,
and it was at least four years later before he moved to Shirley from Corotoman.

The theory that Carter was living at Shirley in 1773 — the year his daughter
Ann Hill was born — appears to be based not only on tradition but on two con-
temporary documents as well — the first, a letter from one Richard Adams to
his brother Thomas dated "Winslows, 30th Sepr. 1771,” in which it was stated
that "... our Friend C. Carter . . . will remove to Shirley as soon as he
can get the House repaired wch, he expects will be done in about 12 or 13
months.” Secondly, in an Act of February, 1772, "Charles Carter of Shirley”
was appointed one of the managers of a lottery proposed by the legislature.12

On the other hand, Charles Carter was designated as "of Corotoman” or
"Corotoman Carter” at the same period and in many more instances, and, like
his father, was sometimes referred to as "of Corotoman and Shirley.” More-
over he represented Lancaster County in the House of Burgesses from 1758
until the end of the colonial period. He sat in three Conventions preceding the
Convention of May, 1776, but his name does not appear in the list of delegates
to the latter.

These facts indicate a predominant interest in the affairs of Lancaster County.
It is true that, under colonial Virginia law, Carter could have been a burgess
from Lancaster, as a land holder of that county, even though owner of Shirley.
But as late as July 3, 1776, "Charles Carter of Corotoamn” was selected as the
"8th man” for the Council of State.13 To have kept his political fences mended
in Lancaster and yet have lived in James County would hardly have been
feasible.

The records of Lancaster county Order Book 13, for the years 1770-1778,
indicate that Charles Carter was present as Justice in that county twenty-nine
times during the years 1772-75:

1772 Jan. 16 (p. 182) June 18 (p. 228)

April 16 (p. 213) Aug. 20 (p. 252)

May 21 (p. 219) Sept. 17 (p. 277)

“Carter v. Webb, exc’t of Cocke in Jefferson’s Reports 1 Virginia, p. 125.

12 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , XXII, p. 387.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

545

1773 Jan.

21 (p. 319)

1774 Jan.

20 (p. 481)

Mar.

18 (p. 340)

Feb.

17 ( p. 491)

Mar.

19 (p. 346)

Mar.

17 (p. 497)

Mar.

20 (p. 368)

April

21 (p. 507)

May

21 (p. 377)

Sept.

15 (p. 529)

July

15 (p. 404)

Oct.

20 (p. 532)

Sept.

16 (p. 426)

Nov.

17 (p. 533)

Oct.

21 (p. 437)

1775 Feb.

16 (p. 536)

Dec.

16 (p. 477)

April

20 (p. 540)

May

18 (p. 541)

Sept.

21 (p. 546)

Oct.

19 (p. 548)

Heretofore unpublished entries in the diary of Landon Carter of Sabine Hall,
a short distance from Corotoman, refer specifically to 1773, the year in which
Ann Hill Carter was born. The original diary in manuscript is owned today
by a lineal descendant of Landon Carter, Mr. Armistead N. Welford of Sabine
Hall. Excerpts have been printed from time to time in the William and Mary
College Quarterly . All of the entries pertaining to the years from 1770 to
1775-6 are of interest in this connection inasmuch as they serve to supplement
the court and business records available and thus add further documentary
proof of the residence of the Charles Carters at Corotoman during these years.

On September 12, 1772, Landon writes: "I set off Monday to Corotoman."
On the fourteenth he continues: "Went after dinner to Corotoman, where Mr.
Carter and his Lady, who came to my house on Saturday before I got off, had
got home before me, and poor Lady, she saw her little and only boy smile and
dye. ..." Landon notes that he returned to Corotoman from Rosegill on
Thursday, September 17, and rode out with Corotoman Carter" on the eight-
eenth.

Passages for the year 1773 bearing on this question, quoted here for the
first time, relate to Friday, September 24, 1773, when Landon says: "Mr. Carter
of Corotoman came here last night full of drinking and laughing, but I remem-
ber him of old and serve him as he use to serve me." On the twenty-fifth,
"Mr. Carter of Corotoman goes away, but likely to rain. He left a dollar to
pay Turberville. ..."

In February of 1774, the master of Sabine Hall writes that "Mr. Carter of
Corotoman came here on his way to the Cleve sail yesterday he with my son set
off to that sale.” And lastly, on May 2, 1774, Landon made note that "Mr.
Carter, of Corotoman, came here yesterday; his horse gave out and he borrowed
one of me to perform his journey upwards. Thus do the Representatives of
the people go out of their duty instead of into it."

Landon invariably speaks of his cousin as "Corotoman Carter.”

The records, together with other documentary proof, point to the conclusion
that Charles Carter did not take up permanent residence at Shirley until some-
time in 1775-1776, thus making the birthplace of Ann Hill Carter at Coroto-

'"8 Henning, Statutes at Large, p. 578.

546

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

man. It is to be noted that full possession of Shirley was not granted Carter
until December, 1772. Assuming that he did plan to move there in "12 or 13
months,” as Richard Adams indicates, it would have meant crossing Tidewater
Virginia in the dead of winter, either in December or January, 1773-1774. That
such a trip would have been made with an hourly expectant mother is doubtful,
even in those days of pioneering.

In 1774 some extensive repairs at Corotoman were evidently contemplated
by Charles Carter as shown by the following advertisement, reprinted by the
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XI, 224:

Ship Joiner Wanted, 1774

Three or four Ship-Joiners, who are capable of executing the best

wainscot work, may meet with employment, and good wages, from

the subscribers — Lancaster County. ~ ^

1 Charles Carter.

It is inconceivable that Carter would have advertised for help in Lancaster
County for work to be done in James County. Finally, a letter from George
Gilmer, "In Camp, 15 July, 1775,” is addressed to "Charles Carter, Esq’re of
Corotoman.”14

Bishop Meade wrote in his Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Vir-
ginia: "Mr. Carter moved to Shirley, on James River, in 1776.” G. W. Beale also
gives this date in his account of Corotoman.15 The Virginia Almanac for 1772
lists "Charles Carter (esquire) of Coroto.” as one of the governors and visitors
to William and Mary College for that year, while a list of the students charged
"Board at William and Mary” from July 25, 1772 to March 25, 1777, includes
"John Hill and George Carter, Sons of Charles Carter, Esq. Corotoman.”

In a letter writen in 1776 by Charles Carter himself to William Fitzhugh,
precisely one year from the date of Gilmer’s letter, comes the first concrete
proof that Charles Carter was living on the James and not on the Rappahan-
nock— the letter is dated "Shirley, July the 3-d 1776.”

Little Ann Hill — or Nancy — as her family called her — was then in her third
year and had apparently left her birthplace, Corotoman, with her father and
mother for their new home where she grew up as "Ann Carter of Shirley” and
where on June 18, 1793, she married Light-Horse Harry Lee, Governor of Vir-
ginia.1'-'

11: RECORDS OF LUCY GRYMES LEE AND BERNARD M. CARTER

A statement received from Bernard Moore Carter of Paris, France:

Bernard Moore Carter was our great grandfather and consequently his wife,
Lucy Lee was our great grandmother and a half sister of General Robert E. Lee.
She was of a very clever intellect, but a rather arbitrary and headstrong char-
acter. She had a great predilection for Philadelphia when it was the winter

“Reprint of Gilmer Papers in the Virginia Historical Society Miscellaneous papers reprinted
as collections of the Virginia Historcal Society, New Series, VII (1887) 90-91.

“Photostat of Beale account of Corotoman given the writer by R. C. Ballard Thruston.

“For special assistance in the research connected with the above record the writer is indebted
to K. L. Trever, Roma Kauffman and Lucy Brown Beale.

SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS

547

social capital of the United States. . . . She liked living there and disliked
very much their fine country place Woodstock in Fauquier County, Virginia.
She proceeded to burn down the house at Woodstock to avoid having to go
there. After this painful episode she and her husband separated. He from all
accounts must have been a long-suffering and patient man.

The two sons of this marriage, our grandfather, Charles Henry Carter, and
our great uncle, Bernard Fitzhugh Carter, were sent to school and subse-
quently to Harvard. Bernard Moore took his three younger daughters, viz:
Mathilda, afterwards Mrs. Tom Willing of Philadelphia; Mildred, afterwards
Mme. de Podestad; and Charlotte, afterwards Mrs. Featherstonehaugh, to
England, where he placed them in a very famous school, called Cambridge
House, where they remained excepting the holidays until they were ready to
make their debut. The eldest daughter, Josephine was left with their Mother,
Lucy Lee, and both these latter lived always in Philadelphia.

When Mathilda, Mildred and Charlotte came out, their Father took a house
in Washington where they spent several winters, and there it was that Mildred
and Charlotte were married, Mildred to the Secretary of the Spanish Legation,
and Charlotte to Featherstonehaugh of the British Legation. Mathilda was
married in London at St. George’s, Hanover Spare, in 1830. Josephine mar-
ried much later Baron Franzen, who was Austrian Consul in Philadelphia.

After these marriages their mother spent her time between Virginia and
Philadelphia, and many times stayed in Baltimore with my Father and Mother
when they were first married. She was a very amusing and interesting old lady,
full of reminiscences and very witty. She died in about 1864 in Philadelphia.

Author’s Note: A close friendship developed between Lucy Grynies Lee Carter and her
great-aunt Alice Lee Shippen which continued until Alice Lee’s death in 1817. Through their
correspondence preserved by Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen of Washington, D. C., many details of the
family life during the early nineteenth century have been found.

12: THE GREAT DROUGHT IN WESTMORELAND

Descriptions of the great drought in the Northern Neck of Virginia in 1806
and record of the thanksgiving day appointed for the plentiful crops in 1807
by the Dover Association or Circuit (of which Westmoreland County was a
part) are contained in the following excerpts from Semple’s History of the Rise
and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia , revised by Reverend G. W. Beale,
1894:

October 11, 1806. They met according to appointment. Information was
received and glorious work of God was going on in the Northern Neck. Most
of the churches in this quarter participated more or less; but Nomini, under
the care of Mr. Toler, was superlatively favored. . . .

The year 1806 was a year of great drought; and crops of corn were uncom-
monly scanty, insomuch that many poor people suffered for the necessaries of
life. In the time of the drought most of the Baptist churches appointed and
observed fast days.

October 11, 1807. They met according to appointment. No new revivals are
spoken of in any of the letters. In some places where revivals had been a few
years past, they speak of distressing times; that the love of many was waxing

548

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

cold. There must be a fanning time as well as a harvesting time. The Association,
according to last year’s appointment, continued four days. . . . Some business
of a general, and much of a local nature occupied their attention. The crops
of the year 1807 were uncommonly plentiful. The Association, taking this
matter into consideration, determined to appoint a thanksgiving day. . . .The
day ivas uniformly observed throughout the district, to the great satisfaction
of almost all sorts of people. — Author’s note.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

Private Collections of Lee Letters and Documents

Official and personal correspondence of Major Henry Lee and Anne McCarty
Lee. Placed at disposal of author by Dr. Henry Lee, New Haven, Conn.

Letters, deeds and papers of Light-Horse Harry Lee — part of manuscript
collection of original Stratford Library, loaned by Mrs. Katherine Lee Hopkins
and Charles Carter Lee, Jr., Rocky Mount, Va.

Verses and articles in manuscript and personal correspondence of Charles
Carter Lee, loaned by his daughter, Mrs. Mildred Lee Francis, Annapolis, Md.;
his son, Robert Randolph Lee, Richmond, Va.; and his grandsons, Charles
Carter Lee and Henry Lee, Rocky Mount, Va. This includes letters of Light-
Horse Harry Lee, Ann Carter Lee, Bernard Moore Carter, Lucy Grymes Lee
Carter, Mrs. William Henry Fitzhugh of Ravensworth, Mrs. George Washing-
ton Parke Custis of Arlington, Mrs. Robert E. Lee of Arlington, and many others.

Book of sermons in manuscript compiled by Hannah Lee Corbin: Notes
about Peckatone, and series of letters written by Major Henry Lee, placed at
disposal of the author by the late Miss Mary Lee Murphy and R. Stafford
Murphy, Hague, Va.

Shippen letters and documents, loaned by Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen, Washing-
ton, D. C., including letters of Arthur Lee, Hannah Lee Corbin, Alice Lee, Lucy
Lee Carter.

Series of letters and Lee documents collected by the late Miss Elizabeth Col-
lins Lee, placed at disposal of author by J. Collins Lee, Richmond, Va.

The journal written by Light-Horse Harry Lee in the West Indies, placed at
disposal of the author by Dr. William Moseley Brown, Clarendon, Va.

Series of letters written by Mary Ann Custis, wife of General Robert E. Lee,
contributed by Mrs. Hugh Antrim, Richmond, Va.

Photostat copies of series newspaper articles by G. W. Beale about Stratford
and other old plantations of the Northern Neck, contributed by R. C. Ballard
Thruston, Louisville, Ky.

Diaries of Landon Carter, placed at the disposal of the author by Armistead
N. Welford, Sabine Hall, Richmond County, Va.

Lee papers, records, documents and letters Research Committee, Robert E.
Lee Memorial Foundation, Stratford, Virginia.

Library, University and County Courthouse Collections
of Lee Letters and Documents

Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts:

( 1 ) Richard Bland Lee Papers

(2) Shippen Papers

(3) Washington Papers containing letters of General Henry Lee

(4) James Madison Papers containing letters of General Henry Lee

(3) Virginia Miscellaneous Papers containing record referring to Thomas
Lee.

[551]

552

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Library of Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria: Number of books
of original Stratford Library.

New York Public Library, Manuscript Division: Henry Lee letters; James
Monroe Papers containing letters of Henry Lee.

Harvard College Library — Lee Letter Books: Notes and data relating ro
Charles Carter Lee in Archives Department.

Pennsylvania Historical Society; Lee letters; Shippen letters, wills and docu-
ments.

Virginia Historical Society: Journal of William Black; Leedstown Resolu-
tions.

The De Renne Library, Savannah, Georgia: Collection of Lee books.

Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia: Data about Cumberland
Island, Georgia, and Dungeness.

Florida State Historical Library, St. Augustine, Florida: Books and manu-
script relating to settlement and history of Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Public Record Office, London, England: Henry Lee letter.

Collections of Lee Papers and documents contained in the Order Books,
Books of Deeds and Wills, Inventories and Accounts, etc., on file in the court-
houses of the counties of Northumberland, Westmoreland, Richmond, King
George, Stafford, Spottsylvania, and Caroline.

Department of Archives, U. S. Navy: Log Book U.S.S. John Adams.

Department of Research and Record of Williamsburg Holding Corporation.

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553

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Fry. Katharine, History of the Parishes of East and West Ham. edited and
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554

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

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Harrison, Fairfax, The Proprietors of the Northern Neck. Privately printed,
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Harrison, Frederic, Chatham. New York, The MacMillan Company; Lon-
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Hartley, Cecil B., Life of Major General Henry Lee, Commander of Lee’s
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Hening, Statutes of Virginia.

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Johnson, William, Sketch of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael
Greene. Charleston, 1822.

Jones, Charles Colcok, Jr., Reminiscences of Last Days, Death and Burial of
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Lee, Henry (Major) .Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, with
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Lee, Richard Henry, Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D. Vols. I and II, Boston, Wells
and Lilly, 1829.

Lee, Richard H., Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee, and His Corres-
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McCabe, James D., Jr., Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee, with
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Mason, Emily V., Popular Life of General Robert Edward Lee. Baltimore,
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556

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

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Nicolay, Helen, Our Capital on the Potomac. New York and London, The
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STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

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INDEX

"Abingdon'' (house), 331

Adams, John, 2-3, 154-6, 157, 178, 194, 253, 312
John Quincy, 380, 382, 383, 385, 415
Samuel, 144, 148, 157, 176, 183

Adamson, Mr. , 32

Adcock, Joseph, 83
"Alee” (slave), 211

Alexander, Mrs. , 355

F. W„ 367
(ship), 4

Alexandria, Va., description of, 330

Allerton, Mr. , 192

Capt. William, 192
Alleyne, John F., 349
Allison, Jacob X., 212
Ambler, John, 24
Amelia Island, Ga., 362
"America" (ship), 127
American Institute of Architects, 489
Anabaptists, 205-6

Analostan Island, (Potomac River), 390

Anderson, Mr. , 377

Andros, Sir Edmund, 20
Antrim, Mrs. Hugh, 266
Applewhaite, Booth, 349
Thomas, 349

"Arlington” (house), (Alexandria, Va.), 15, 88.

331, 390, 449
Armistead, John, 268
Judith, 268

Arnold, Gen. Benedict, 238
"Ash Grove,” Fairfax Co, Va., 506
"Ashdown House,” Berkshire, Eng., 46, 489
Ashton, Burdet, 112

Nancy (Washington) (Mrs. Burdet), 112
"Aunt Maria," (Mrs. William Henry Fitzhugh),
390

"Aunt Walker,” 273
Aylett, Anne, 102, 104, 106-7, 192, 253
John, 102
Mary, 102, 192
Philip, 102
William, 102

Bache, Mr. , 197

Bacon, Nathaniel, 1, 9, 12, 19
Bacon's rebellion, 1, 19

Ball, Captain , 110

Ballagh, James Curtis, 186, 208
"Balston Springs" (resort, upper New York),
246

Baltimore riot, 339-41, 343, 345
Baltimorean (newspaper), 202, 21 1

Banhead, Mr. , 112

Cate (Vaulx), 112
Bankhead, Colonel James, 362, 369
Bannister, Elizabeth Carter Byrd (Farley) (Mrs.
John), 272
John, 272
"Baptist,” 109

Baptists in Virginia, 204-6, 209-10
Barcklaies, Sir William, 9
"Barclay" plantation, 273
Barkham, Sir Edward, 18
Margaret, 18
Barnet, Charles, 420
Barnett, Philip, 101

Barre, Colonel , 164

Bayne, Richard, 377
Beal, Mrs. , 195

Beale, George Washington, 91, 102-4, 105-6, 108,
149, 202-4, 209, 21 1, 215, 223, 225, 268, 269,
283, 367, 459, 497
Lucy Browne, 222, 465
Beaumarchais, Caron de, 171, 173
Beckler, John, 349
Beckwith, Sir George, 349
"Bedford” plantation, 40

"Bellevue” plantation, Stafford Co., Va., 112,
141, 160, 231

"Belmont” estate, Howard Co., Md., 342
Loudoun Co., Va., 253, 285
"Belvoir" estate, Fairfax Co., Va., 307, 504, 506
"Ben” (slave), 21 1
Bendy, Elizabeth, 7
Bennett, Anne, 17
Benjamin, 83
Richard, 17
Berkeley, Ann, 324
Dr. Carter, 323, 324
Elizabeth, 324
Lady Frances, 15, 24

Sir William (governor of Va.), 8, 9, 12, 15,
22, 189

"Bermuda Hundred” estate, Charles City Co.,
Va., 270
Bernard, R., 24l
Richard, 99

Best, Mr. , 349

"Betsey" (ship), 359
"Betty” (slave), 211

Beverley, Robert, 1, 17-18, 19, 22, 25, 26, 28,
35, 42, 125, 126
McKenzie, 373, 374, 425
William, 65, 68, 75, 88, 404

Biddle, Commodore , 370, 395

"Bill of Rights,” 164, 166, 338
Bills, William, 47

Bingham, Mr. and Mrs. , 247

Black, William, 134, 147

"Black Harry," see Lee, Henry (Light-Horse
Harry)

"Black Horse Harry,” see Lee, Henry (Light-
Horse Harry)

Blair, Dr. , 194

Commissary, 22
Gist, 213

Sarah (Harrison) (Mrs. Commissary), 22
Bland, Anne (Bennett) (Mrs. Theodorick), 17
John, 17

Martha (Mrs. Theodorick), 194
Mary, 1, 17, 54, 227
Richard, 17, 147, 162
Schuyler Otis, 451
Theodorick, 1, 9, 17, 233, 244
"Blenheim” plantation, Albemarle Co., Va., 279
Blue Ridge Mountains, Va., 134
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 371, 402, 403, 459
"Boston Port Bill," 144, 147
Boulabert, Auguste, 410
Boyd, Thomas, 243, 303, 317
Brackenridge, H. H., 230
Braddock, General Edward, 77, 95, 135
Braddock's expedition, 77, 135

[561]

562

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Bradford, Gamaliel, 453
Bradford and Inskeep, 332

"Brandon" plantation (Prince George Co., Va.),
16, 17

"Brandywine” (U. S. S. frigate), 415, 417
Brandywine, Battle of, 233

Braxton, Sister , 323

Mary, 355

Bray's Church, Leedstown, Va., 140
"Bremo” (Fluvanna Co., Va.), 510

Brent, Mr. , 194, 406, 409

Brett, John, 129

"Bridges’ Creek” plantation, 58, 94, 218, 243,
417

Broadwater, Charles, 100
Brook, Edmond, 355
Brooke, Robert, 68, 134
Brookes, George, 32

"Brooke’s Bank” estate (Essex Co., Va.), 68
Brooks, Christopher, 58
Brown, George Frederick, 459
James, 418
Richard, 403

Richard T„ 375, 379, 380, 381, 396, 397
Dr. William Moseley, 348
Bruce, Philip Alexander, 16
Bruton Church, Williamsburg, Va., 12, 35, 37
"Bruton Parish,” Somersetshire, Eng., 12
Bryer, Thomas, 129

Buchanan, Mr. , 196

Buck, Anthony, 426

Bullock, Mr. and Mrs. , 349

Burche, Captain , 4

Burke, Edmund, 166
Burnett, Edmund C., 178

Burnt House Fields (cemetery, Westmoreland
Co., Va.), 20, 24, 54, 62, 86, 87, 106, 187
Burr, Aaron, 230
Burrel, Charles, 350

Burrows, Major , 194

Burwell, Colonel , 110

"Bushfield” estate, 218, 243, 252, 253

Bushrod, Miss , 112

Butler, Mr. — , 379

Lawrence, 130, 131
Byrd, Elisabeth Hill, 271

Elisabeth Hill (Carter) (Mrs. William), 271,
272

Marv (Willin<t) (Mrs. William), 272
William, 271, 272
Byron, Lord, 399, 412, 415

Cabell, William, 255
"Cade” (horse), 117
Calhoun, John C., 335, 380

Callett, Mr. , 355

Camden, Lord, 143
(battle), 235, 364

Campbell, Mr. ■ , 181

Charles, 156
Carlyle, John, 74

Caroline, Queen, regent of England, 57
Carrington, Edward, 278
"Cartel” (ship), 346

Carter, Mr. , 273, 328

Sister , 323

Ann (Butler) Moore (Mrs. Charles), 268,
269

Ann Hill (Nancy), 124, 268, 269, 270, 271,
272-3, 274, 275-6, 277-9, 281-2, 283,
285-6, 287, 288, 293, 294, 296-9, 303-11,
312-14, 317, 319, 320, 322-6, 327, 328,
330, 331, 332, 342, 345, 346-7, 350, 352,
514

Anne, 219

Bernard Moore, 293-4, 418
Charles, 112, 268, 269, 270, 271, 277, 293,
307, 460
Charlotte, 402
Edward, 309
Elisabeth Hill, 272, 279
Elisabeth (Hill) (Mrs. John), 269, 270
James A., 426
John, 9, 268, 269, 270
Josephine, 194

Judith (Armistead) (Mrs. Robert "King”),
268

Landon, 112, 123, 270
Lucy, 269

Lucy Grymes (Lee) (Mrs. Bernard Moore),
194, 293-4, 342, 379, 406
Maria (Farley) (Mrs. William Champe),
279

Mary, 269

Mary (Carter) (Mrs. Charles), 269
Mathilde, 402
Matilda, 194
Mildred, 309

Molly (Fauntleroy) (Mrs. Landon), 112
Nancy, see Carter, Ann Hill
Robert, 20, 25, 26, 42, 107, 123, 205, 218,
219, 305, 309, 376, 447
Robert ("King”), 123, 268-9, 271
William Champe, 279

"Carter’s Creek Plantation" (Gloucester Co.,
Va.), 15

Cary, Archibald, 129

"Castle at Green Spring" (house, James City Co.,
Va.), 12, 22, 50-2, 58, 62, 82, 189, 227
"Castle Hill” estate, 509
"Catawbas” (Indians), 71, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81
Cathcart, James Leander, 393
Cave, Edward, 62

"Cedar Grove,” King George Co., Va., 372, 429,
431

Champollion, Jean Frangois, 393
"Changeling” (horse), 117
Chanler, William, 54, 88

"Chantilly” estate (Westmoreland Co., Va.),
102-6, 135, 140-1, 147, 158-9, 181, 183, 187,
188, 213, 219, 225, 226, 231, 252, 253, 330,
417, 440, 465, 475,
library at, 283-5
Chapman, Isaac, 41
J. B., 404
Nathaniel, 74

Charles I, king of England, 9
II, king of England, 9
(slave), 212
(ship), 127

Chastellux, Marquis de, 215
Chatham, Lord, 143, 166, 312
(ship), 127

plantation (Stafford Co., Va.), 141, 388
Cheatham, Maj.-Gen. B. F., 479, 510
"Chesapeake” (frigate), 334

INDEX

563

Chew, John, 426

Childe, Catharine Mildred (Lee) (Mrs. Edward
Vernon), 432, 408

Chilton, Mr. , 32

Thomas, 104, 131

"Chippokes” plantation, Surry Co., Va., 23, 123
"Chisholm versus Georgia" (lawsuit), 280

Christian, Mr. (dancing master), 149,

150, 220

Clark, Captain , 334

Clarke, Miss , 411

Colonel George, 411
Clay, Henry, 335, 417

"Cleve" plantation (King George Co., Va.),
447

"Clifts Plantation,” Westmoreland Co., Va., 28-
33, 37, 39, 40, 45, 114, 222, 511
horse-breeding, 114-9
waterfront, 125-36
Clinton, Governor De Witt, 80
Sir Henry, 238
Coaches, 1 20-4

specifications for, 120-2

"Cobbs Hall,” Northumberland Co., Va., 7, 8,
11, 29, 465

Cocke, Bowler, 269, 270

Elisabeth (Hill) Carter (Mrs. Bowler), 269

Coithurst, Mr. , 349

Coke, Lord, 96

Colden, Mrs. — , 258-9

Collany, Mr. , 355

College of Arms, Eng., 218

of New Jersey, see Princeton University

Collins, Miss , 346

Mr. , 194

Mrs. , 286

Elizabeth, 227
Zaccheus, 345

Confederation, Articles of (U. S.), 158, 336
Constitution (U. S.), 263, 264, 338
eleventh amendment to, 280
ratification of, 255-6
testing of, 280-1

Constitutional Convention (U. S.), 158
"Content” (sloop), 41

Continental Congress (U. S.), 147, 148, 162,
166-70, 17l/l72, 191, 192, 256

Contrecceur, , 77

Convers, Sarah, 4 1 1
Cooke, Rev. Giles B., 450, 451, 519
John Esten, 9
"Cora” (dog), 408

Corbin, Alice (Eltonhead) (Mrs. Henry), 16
Anne, 107

Elisha Hall, 211-12, 215, 216-17
Elizabeth, 16
Frances, 16, 18, 202

Gawen, 62, 74, 89, 91, 192, 199, 202, 206,
209, 212, 215, 218, 440
Hannah (Lee) (Mrs. Gawen), 62, 91, 113,
120-2, 123, 192, 199-217, 218, 219, 440,
447, 509

coach, specifications for (facsimile), 121
letters to Alice Shippen, 206-9, 213, 214-5
will, 216-17
women's rights, 206-9
Henry, 1, 9, 16, 19, 20, 55, 107, 202
Laetitia, 1, 16, 18, 19, 25, 40, 202

Martha, 112, 122, 199, 206, 213, 217, 218
Martha Hall, 212, 216-17
Patty, see Corbin, Martha
Richard, 89, 100
Thomas, 16, 26
coat of arms, 10
family, 16
Corbyn, see Corbin
Corcoran, W. W., 289

Cornwallis, Lord Charles, 218, 236, 238, 239,
242, 264

"Corotoman" plantation, Lancaster Co., Va., 25,
180, 268, 269, 270, 271, 514
Cortland, Gen. V., 194
Cottington, Francis, 15
Jane, 15

Coursey, Henry, 70

Cox, Fleet, 82

Crabb, Captain Richard, 338

Craig, Mr. , 92

Crags, Mr. ■ , 195

Crawford, Mr. , 460

Cresap, Daniel, 74

Crump, Mr. , 214

Culpeper, Lord, 15
Frances, 14, 15, 24
Thomas, 269

Cumberland Island, Ga., 359, 363, 364, 402
Sound (Fla.), 362, 363
Currie, David, 91, 92
Custis, Eliza Parke, 412

George Washington Parke, 15, 18, 343, 377,
388, 429
John, 20, 88
John Parke, 429

Mary Ann Randolph, 388, 390, 431
Mary Lee (Fitzhugh) (Mrs. George Wash-
ington Parke), 331, 388
Nelly, 15, 429
Cutting, J. B., 194

"Cyrus" (slave), 211, 213, 214, 215
Calvert, Eleanor, 429
Julia, 409

Dade, Townshend S., 425

Daily National Intelligencer (newspaper), 332,
364

Daingerfield, Miss , 112

Dale, Sir Thomas, 270

Dallas, Lt. , 369, 370

Dartmouth, Lord , 170

Davenport, (Ransdell) (Mrs. James),

112

James, 105, 112

Davies, Mr. , 81-2

Davis, Nathaniel, 83
Dawson, William, 83
Deane, Silas, 172, 173, 417
Declaration of Independence (U. S.), 4, 151,
157, 162, 170, 187, 191, 219, 249, 514
facsimile, 151

De la Lee, Matilda (Erdington) (Mrs. Thomas),
218

Thomas, 218
Delano, E. Carter, 52

Dexter, Mr. , 370

"Diamond” (horse), 228
Dickinson, John, 170

564

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Dider, Mr. , 350

Digges, Sally, 400
Diggs, Sir Edward, 29
Dinwiddie, Governor Robert, 74, 94, 96
"Ditchley” plantation, Northumberland Co., Va.,
29, 447, 465

"Divine Matilda” (Matilda Lee), 218, 225, 266,
309

Dixon, Dr. , 98

''Dotterel” (horse), 117-9
pedigree, 119
Douglass, William, 91, 92

Downing, Mr. , 164

"Dragoon Harry" (Lee), 227
Drinker, Elizabeth, 290
Dumfries, Va., 22 6, 227

"Dungeness” (house), Cumberland Island, Ga.,
359, 360, 362, 402
Dunk, George, 79

Dunning, Mr. , 166

Dwight, Mr. , 354

"Eagle's Nest" plantation, King George Co.,
Va., 41, 88, 269, 371, 390
Earle, Swepson, 271
Eddy, Mrs. , 349

"Edgewood” estate (Nelson Co., Va.), 323,324
Effingham, Lord, 15
Egmont, Lord, 1 43
"Elizabeth” (ship), 8, 41
Eltonhead, Alice, 16
Richard, 16
Elzey, Lewis, 100
"Embargo Act,” 318, 339, 345
Erdington, Henrici de, 218
Matilda, 218

Erskine, Lord , 429

Margaret, 429

Eskridge, Mrs. I , 379

Burdette, 377

"Essays by a Citizen of Virginia" (book), 4l4
Evreux, General Juan d’, 414

Fairfax, George, 74

Lady Catherine, 25, 26, 33
Lord Thomas, 25, 26, 76
independent Company of Voluntiers, 231-2
Jockey Club, 330
"Resolves," 231-2
Falmouth, Va., 227
"Famous” (horse), 228

Farley, Betsy, see Farley, Elizabeth Carter Byrd
Elizabeth Carter Byrd, 271, 272, 273, 275,
279, 288

Elisabeth Hill (Byrd) (Mrs. John Parke),
271

John Parke, 271

Maria Byrd, 271, 272, 274, 275, 27 6, 279

Fauntleroy, Dr. , 112

Miss , 112

Mr. , 208

Jane, 112
Molly, 112

Fauquer, Mrs. , 218

Fay, Colonel W. Garland, 4 1 1
Featherstonhaugh, Charlotte (Carter), 402
Federal Constitution, 178, 182, 183, 191

Republican (newspaper), 335-41, 342
Federalist party, 286, 294, 335, 336
Fendall, Elizabeth (Steptoe) Lee (Mrs. Philip
Richard), 219, 222, 240-1, 246, 257, 439
Philip Richard, 220 222, 240-1
Fenwick, Colonel James R., 380
Fernandina, Fla., 362, 363
Fisher, George, 97-8
Fiske, John, 481

Fithian, Philip Vickers, 107, 115, 123, 133, 144,
145, 149-50, 205-6, 230, 232

Fitzhugh, Mr. , 355

Colonel, , 110, 115

Ann (Lee) (Mrs. William), 41, 269, 371,
390

Anna Maria (Goldsborough) (Mrs. William
Henry), 388
Harry, 32
Henry, 269

Lucy (Carter) (Mrs. Henry), 269
Mary Lee, 331, 388

William, 40, 41, 88, 269, 371, 388, 390, 511
William Henry, 331, 388
W. H„ 392
Fletcher, John, 41
"Flimack” (horse), 228

Flood, Dr. , 115

Folke, Samuel Baker, 433
Ford, Worthington C., 171
Foreign Legion of Liberation, 4 14
Forrest, H. Edward, 7
Fort Duquesne . (Pittsburgh, Pa.), 77, 135
Le Boeuf, 94
McIntosh, 178

Stanwix (Rome, N. Y.), 178
Forward, Ambrose, 41

"Fountain of Health” (Mineral Springs, Tenn.),
386, 387
Fox, John, 373

Joseph, 37 6, 377, 423

France, Treaty Between United States and, 191

Francis, Mildred (Lee) (Mrs. ), 222,

276, 294, 304, 317, 323, 325, 342-3, 351,
367, 375, 510

Franklin, Benjamin, 140, 157, 170, 172, 173, 417
"Frederick” (ship), 127
Freeman, Douglas Southall, 228, 329, 459
dedicatory address at Stratford, 517-19
William, 8

"Freestone Point” (house) Prince William Co.,
Va., 141, 160, 22 6, 228, 229, 231, 417
French and Indian War (1754), 77, 95
Freneau, Philip, 230
"Friend's Adventure" (ship), 127
"Friendship” (ship), 128

Gadsby, Mr. — , 350

Gadsden, Christopher, 140, 144
Gaither, Ephraim, 338
Harry, 338
William, 341

Galignani's Messenger (newspaper), 404
Gall, James, 92

Gallatin, Mr. , 194

Galloway, Miss ■ , 112

Garner, Hannah X., 212
John, 212

Gaspard, Louis Simeon, 410

INDEX

565

Gates, Mr. , 235

"Gay Mont" estate (Caroline Co., Va.), 447
Gazette (Alexandria newspaper), 332
General Advertiser (newspaper), 277-8
Genet, Edmond Charles, 187, 280
George II, king of England, 42
III, king of England, 166
Georgetown (District of Columbia), 257
Gerard, Louis, 409, 410
Germantown, Battle of, 233
Getting, Judge Joshua, 349
Gibbern, Parson, 206
Gibbon, John, 8, 9
Gibbons, Jane, 429
Sir John, 429
"Gift" (horse), 115-17
Giles, Jacob, 74

Gilmer, F. W., 366, 369, 370, 374
"Gimrack” (horse), 228
Gist, Christopher, 75, 94

Glen, Governor , 80

Glynn, Sergeant, 164, 166

Goddard, Mr. , 359

"Godolphin" (horse), 117
Goldsborough, Anna Maria, 388
Elizabeth, 388

Gooch, William, 55, 57, 65, 72-3, 75, 76, 82

Goring, Mr. — , 349

Graham, Captain , 350

John, 426

Graithwaite, Governor , 349

Gray, Vincent, 358
Grayson, William, 159, 182-3
Great House, see Stratford Hall
Green, Gen. Duff, 385, 386, 387
"Green Spring Plantation,” James City Co., Va.,
12, 15, 22, 23, 35, 39, 62, 111, 141, 187,
190, 227, 506, 512
Greene, Anne Carter, 275

General Nathanael, 235, 238, 239, 244, 249-
50, 295, 320, 332, 359, 364
Gregory, Mrs. Mildred, 58

Greland, Madame , 372

school, Philadelphia, 372
Grenville, G., 143

Grersat, Mr. , 349

Grimes, Gilbert, 4

Grymes, Colonel , 88

Charles, 18, 227
Frances, 111, 227

Frances (Jenings) (Mrs. Charles), 18, 227
Lucy, 18, 225, 226, 227-8, 229

Gunn, General , 194

"Gunston Hall” (Stafford Co., Va.), 183, 331,
390, 417, 504

Hagner, Mr. , 369

Halifax, Lord, 457

Hall. Mr. , 341

Elisha, see Corbin, Elisha Hall
John E., 341

Martha, see Corbin, Martha Hall
Richard Lingan, 209-10, 211, 212-3, 216, 217
Hal lam, George, 349
Hallowell School, Alexandria, Va., 388
"Hallows Marsh” lands, Westmoreland Co., Va.,
222

"Ham House,” Eng., 50

Hamilton, Mr. , 256

Mrs. , 259

Alexander, 458
Andrew, 58, 75-6
"Hannah” (slave), 211
Hannah, Major B., 328

Hanson, Alexander Contee, 336-41, 342, 343,
344

John, 336

"Hariot” (ship), 133

Harrison, Colonel , 115, 273

Benjamin, 1, 16-17, 22, 39, 40, 147, 255
Hannah, 1, 22,

tomb, inscription on. 23
Nathaniel, 17, 22
Miss S„ 273
Sarah, 22

"Harry” (slave), 212

Hartly, Ann, 100, 101

Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.), 354

Harvie, Alice Lee, 514

Hawley, Mr. , 420

"Hayfield” (house), 506

Hebb, Miss , 4l4

Anna, 41 1

Elizabeth Lambert, 412
Captain Vernon, 411

Henderson, Miss , 370

Hendrick, Burton J., 229, 281

Hening, Mr. — •, 129, 130

Henley, Commodore John D., 362, 363
Henniker, Sir John, 11
"Henricus Lee” (well), 362
Henry, Patrick, 139, 140, 147, 148, 156, 172,
182, 205, 232, 244, 250, 255, 263
"Hermitage” (house, Tenn.), 384, 387

Higginbotham, Mr. and Mrs. , 346, 348,

350

Higginson, Lucy, 15
Robert, 15

Hill, Edward, 269, 270-1
Elisabeth, 269, 270, 271
Hannah, 270
Thomas, 8

"Hill Mansion," 268, 270
Hipkins, Robert L., 376

Hogarth, Mr. • — (painter), 218

Hogman, Peter, 99

Holbrook, Mr. , 355

Holingsworth, Mr. • 195

Hollingsworth, Giles, 349
"Homewood” (house), 485
"Hope Park” estate, 331, 429
Hopkins, John, 377
Horse breeding and racing, 1 14-9
Hotten, John Camden, 4
Houston Post-Dispatch (newspaper), 450
Howard, John Eager, 70, 328, 380, 496

Hume, Mr. , 355

"Hundred & Meade” (house), 272
Hunt, Major H., 369, 370
Hurley, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick, 253

Independence Hall (Philadelphia), 4, 187, 193
India Company, 143
Indian commission, 65-73

question, 65-73, 74, 75-81, 94
Indiana Company, 280

566

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Inventories

boats and equipment at Stratford Landing,
133

horses of Philip Lee's estate, 118
items sent by Lee from Barbados, 349-50
rooms, buildings, equipment, etc., at Stratford
Hall, 465-70
Stratford expenses, 223
inventories, 465-75
Irving, Washington, 332

Izzard (Izard), Elizabeth (Farley) Shippen

(Mrs. George), 279, 367
George, 279, 367

Jackson, Andrew, 377, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383,

384, 385, 386, 387, 390, 392, 396, 397, 398

inauguration, 385
Elizabeth, 218
Rachel, 387
Richard, 99

Committee of Kentucky, 387
Jacob, N. B. (slave), 418
James V, king of England, 429
Jay, John, 170
Treaty, 187

Jay-Gardoqui negotiations, 255
Jefferson, Thomas, 12, 91, 135, 148, 157, 172,
173, 186, 194, 205, 232, 317, 318, 380, 451

Jeffrey, Mr. , 367

Jeffreys, Governor , 16

Jenings, Edmund, 1, 16, 17-18, 20, 26, 202
Sir Edmund, 18
Frances, 18, 227

Frances (Corbin) (Mrs. Edmund), 16, 18,
202

Margaret (Barkham) (Lady Edmund), 18
Jennings, see Jenings
Jersey City (New Jersey), 236
Jett, William S., 425
"John Adams" (frigate), 362, 363

Johnson, Mr. , 377, 403

Pete, 500
Samuel, 166
Johnston, Mary, 35

Jones, Dr. , 194

Charles C., 359, 360, 362

Hugh, 35

J. W„ 326

Joe, 110

John, 29

John W., 376

Thomas, 26, 165

W., 287

Walter, 165

"Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia" (book),
202, 252, 455

"Junius Americanus” (Arthur Lee), 166

"Kate” (slave), 212
Kenner, Rodham, 377
Kerr, John Leeds, 388
Kester, Paul, 451
Keyes, Homer Eaton, 513

Kilgour, Mr. , 341

Charles J., 338
Robert, 338

Kimball, Fiske, 476, 477-8, 479, 486, 510
King, Rufus, 366, 370

Kinloch, W., 274

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 20, 37

Knox, Maj.-Gen. Henry, 279

Lacey, Israel, 328

Lafayette, Marquis de, 158, 215, 236, 238, 253,
276, 415, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 458
letters to Henry Vernon Somerville, 419-21
La Grange (chateau, France), 418
Lancaster, Robert A., 471
commission, 65-71, 134

Virginia delegates, instructions to (fac-
simile), 72-3
Council, 65-71

Treaty of, 76, 77, 79, 96, 134, 141, 190, 191,
249

(facsimile), 72-3

Lane, Colonel , 369

Mr. , 205

Langdon, Senator , 194

Lanier, Sidney, 447, 514

"Lansdowne" plantation, Middlesex Co., Va.,
180, 273

Lasteyrie, Count Louis de, 419
Latrobe, Benjamin, 189
Laurens, Henry, 172

Law, Miss , 369, 370

Eliza Parke (Custis) (Mrs. Thomas), 412
Pierpont, 349
Thomas, 412
Lawson, Nancy, 218
League of Nations, 158
Lear, Tobias, 295
Lee (widow of John), 112
Agnes, 431

Algernon Sidney, 281-2, 283, 440
Alice Harriet, 2, 58, 61, 62, 91, 92, 100, 101,
102, 111, 113, 1 4 1 , 180, 190, 192-8, 199,
200-1, 205, 213, 214-15, 219, 220, 225,
229, 244, 247, 312, 342, 417, 422, 440,
460

Ann, 41, 269, 371, 390

Ann Hill (Carter) (Mrs. Henry) (Light-
Horse Harry), 124, 278-9, 281-2, 283,
285-6, 287, 288, 293, 294, 296-9, 303-1 1,
312-14, 317, 319, 320, 322-6, 327, 328,

330, 331, 332, 342, 345, 346-7, 350,
352-3, 354, 358, 359, 364, 367, 388, 390,
440, 458, 459, 495, 511, 514

death, 390

letter to Carter Berkeley, 323-4
letter to Richard Bland Lee, 309
letter to Zaccheus Collins, 346
letters to Carter Lee, 354-7
obituary, 292

Ann Kinloch, 293, 294, 296, 302, 305, 308,

331, 347, 350, 355, 356, 440
Ann Matilda, 305

Anne, 8, 11, 229

Anne (Aylett) (Mrs. Richard Henry), 102,
104, 106-7, 192, 253

Anne Gaskins (Pinckard) (Mrs. Richard
Henry), 113

Anne Robinson (McCarty) (Mrs. Henry),
372-5, 377, 379, 380, 386-7, 392, 393,
394, 395, 398, 400, 402, 404, 405-10,
425, 429, 440, 460
letter to Carter Lee, 399-400

INDEX

567

letters to Carter Lee (excerpts), 406-9
letters to Major Lewis (excerpts), 405-6
Arthur, 2, 91, 92, 100, 101, 108, 111, 112,
113, 139, 141, 144, 154, 162-3, 164-171,
172, 173-81, 190, 191, 192, 195, 215,
235, 252, 273, 285, 309, 417, 440, 455,
496, 514

commissioner to France, 165, 173
death, 181

letter to Frank Lee, 112
letter to Richard Henry Lee, 113
letter to Tom Shippen (excerpts), 173-7
London activities, 1 4 1 , 144, 166-70
Monitor's letters, 166
political activities at home, 178
recall, 173-6
retirement, 180-1
secret agent, 170-1
Aylett, 189
Blair, 172
Dr. Bolling, 515
C., 257

Carter, see Lee, Charles Carter
Catharine Mildred, 331, 347, 355, 356, 390,
394, 402, 408, 440

Charles, 160, 194, 229, 230, 253, 279, 355
Charles Carter, 106, 124, 133-4, 179, 223,
224, 226, 230, 235, 242, 268, 270, 278,
285, 286, 293, 296-7, 299-302, 305, 306,

308, 311, 312-14, 315, 323, 325, 326,
330, 347-8, 350, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356-
7, 358, 359, 367, 375, 379, 387, 388, 390,
393, 400, 405, 406, 408, 409-10, 426,
440, 458, 459, 460, 461, 488, 496, 497,
503, 510

letter from Anne Lee, 399-400
letters from Anne Lee (excerpts), 406-9
letter from Henry Lee, 395
letter to Henry Lee, 394
Cornelia, 24, 189, 331

Edmund Jenings, 18, 105, 110, 160, 229, 233.
253, 481

Elizabeth (Bendy) (Mrs. Richard), 7
Elizabeth (Collins) (Mrs. Richard Bland),
227, 279, 283, 285-6, 294, 304, 307, 308,

309, 345, 511

Elizabeth (Corbin) (Mrs. Johnannes), 16
Elizabeth (Steptoe) (Mrs. Philip Ludwell),
102, 149, 218, 220, 222, 243, 309, 440,
462

Fitzhugh, 457

Flora, 149, 219, 222, 223, 226, 240, 246,
252, 253, 283, 285, 371, 373, 439, 440
Flora (Lee) (Mrs. Ludwell), 253, 285
Francis Lightfoot, 2, 91, 92, 96, 97, 99, 100,
101, 107, 108-11, 112, 114, 154, 157, 160-
63, 187, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 209,
218, 219, 240-1, 309, 336, 440, 455, 496,
514

Continental Congress delegate, 147, 162
death, 190

Declaration of Independence, signer of,
151

letter from Arthur Lee, 112
letters to Becky Lee, 110-11
George, 42, 55, 99, 100, 286
Gilbert, 4

H., 156, 232, 235, 236, 258

Hannah, 2, 91, 113, 120, 123, 192, 199-217,
218, 219, 253, 414, 440

Hannah (Ludwell) (Mrs. Thomas), 1, 17,
22, 39-40, 45, 52, 54, 55, 62-4, 86-7, 91.
Ill, 199, 218, 227, 309, 440, 470

Hannah Philippa (Ludwell) (Mrs. William),
111, 112, 189, 462

Henry, 1, 17, 18, 30, 32, 37, 54, 55, 61, 88,
92, 99, 100, 114, 129, 135, 140, 141,
149, 150-1, 160, 171, 220, 226, 227-8,
229, 230, 233

Henry (Light-Horse Harry), 1, 4, 18, 106,
124, 135, 160, 218, 219, 220, 225, 226,
227, 228-40, 258-60, 263-8, 274, 275-8,
279-82, 283-5, 286-7, 288-93, 294-5, 296-
9, 306, 312-23, 324, 325, 327-8, 329, 330,
331-2, 334-5, 336, 345, 358-9, 366, 380,
384, 395, 417, 439, 440, 455, 458, 459,
460, 461, 462, 471, 488, 514
anecdote, 243-4

attached to army in the north, 233-5
attached to army in the south, 235
Barbados, life in, 345-53
bond given for Stratford division, 240- 1
burial, 363

Constitution, attitude towards, 280

continental army, member of, 232-9

country gentleman, 240-3

death, 363

death notice, 364-5

debtors' prison, 320-23, 327-8

deed of trust, 259

education, 229-32

Federal Republican, defense of, 338-44
financial difficulties, 296, 299, 302-3, 312,
317-20

governor of Virginia, 264-8
last days, 359-63

letter from Lafayette (excerpts), 236
letter from Ann Lee, 306-7
letter from Theodore Sedgwick, 292
letter from Washington, 258
letter to Major B. Hannah, 328
letter to Ann Lee, 346
letter to Ann Lee (excerpts), 350-3
letter to Carter Lee, 347-8
letter to Richard Bland Lee, 251
letter to Richard Bland Lee (excerpts),
247-9

letter to Madison (excerpts), 263-4
letter to John James Maund (excerpt),
246-7

letter to officers of militia, 238-9

letter to Theodore Sedgwick, 292

letter to Washington, 257-8

letter to Washington (excerpts), 276-7

letter to wife’s mother, 246

medal awarded, 236

Memoirs, 285, 321-2, 327-8, 331-2

military tactics, 236-8

Ohio valley activities, 249, 250-1, 255

on organized national defense, 292-3

political activities, 243-52, 253-8, 263-8

promotions in army, 234-5

ratification of Constitution, 255-6, 257

states' rights, 263-4, 281

War of 1812, pamphlet against, 334-5

Washington’s death, action on, 288-92

568

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Major Henry, 252, 259, 2 66, 278, 285, 293,
303, 312-4, 315, 320, 324-5, 336, 342,
347, 349, 350, 353, 355, 358, 359, 366-
70, 372-84, 385-7, 390, 392, 398, 399,
400, 405, 406, 411, 412, 414, 422, 423,
424, 425, 426, 427, 439, 440, 458, 459,
460, 461, 462

"Biography of Andrew Jackson," 385-6
"Campaign of 1781 in the Carolinas,"
377

consul-general to Barbary Powers, 392-8
death, 404

financial situation, 374, 377-9
letter from Gilmer (excerpt), 374
letter from Carter Lee, 394
letter from Lucy Lee, 394
letter from Gilbert C. Russell (excerpt),
392

letter to Robert Carter, 376
letter to Andrew Jackson, 382-4
letter to Carter Lee, 395
letter to Carter Lee (excerpt), 387
letter to Lucy Lee (excerpt), 387
letters concerning Henry Lee, 396, 397-8
letters and excerpts from Major Hunt,
369, 370

letters from Richard T. Brown (ex-
cerpts), 379-80, 381
letters of introduction, 393
"Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,” 403-4
literary work, 377, 384, 402-4
"Observations on the Writings of Thomas
Jefferson," 402-3
persecution, 379-84, 396
political aide to Jackson, 385-8
rejection of appointment by Senate, 396
selling of Stratford, 377
stay in Italy and Paris, 399-400
will, 393

J. Collins, 209, 227
Johannes, 16

John, 7, 11, 18, 40, 91, 99, 112, 440
John Francis, 8

Joyce (Romney) (Mrs. John), 7
Laetitia (Corbin) (Mrs. Richard), 1, 16, 20,
25, 40, 202
Lancelot, 61, 133
Lettice, 88
Lucinda, 202, 252
Lucv, 91, 229, 266, 440
Lucy Grymes, 194, 244, 246, 247, 259, 278,
287, 288, 293-4, 342, 379, 387, 394, 402,
440

Lucy (Grymes) (Mrs. Henry), 18, 225, 226,
227-8, 229

Ludwell, 104, 252, 253, 259, 283, 285, 417,
440

Margaret, 374, 440
Martha, 32
Mar>', 229, 253, 431

Mar}' (Aylett) (Mrs. Thomas Ludwell),
102

Mary (Bland) (Mrs. Henry), 1, 17, 18, 54,
227

Mary (Custis) (Mrs. Robert E.), 431, 518
Matilda, 149, 218-20, 222-6, 440, 495
Matilda (Lee) (Mrs. Henry) (Light-Horse
Harry), 226. 239, 240-41. 244-7, 251.

252, 253, 257, 258-60, 283, 288, 293,
303, 315, 324, 366, 371, 373, 439, 440,
495

Mildred, 431
Mildred Francis, 314

Mildred (Washington) (Mrs. Thomas Lud-
well), 253
Mollie, 219
Nancy, 252, 253

Nancy (Lee) (Mrs. Charles), 253
Nannie (Mason) (Mrs. Sidney Smith), 390
Nathanael Greene, 244, 440
Nelly, 218

Philip, 2, 28, 87, 252, 336, 496
"Master Phil,” 220, 222
Philip Ludwell, 40, 61, 68, 74, 88-9, 92, 96-
101, 102, 104, 112, 114-15, 117-18, 123,
125, 130-33, 134, 139, 149-54, 190, 192,
205, 218, 219, 220, 222, 223, 240-1, 244,
246, 259, 266, 283, 285, 373, 374, 439,
440, 462, 465, 470, 475, 510
American Revolution, part in, 139, 149
letter to William Lee, 112
Portia, 189, 331
R., 286, 511
R. B., 194, 369
Captain R. E., 282, 326
R. H., 92, 94, 95, 144, 147, 154-6, 166
Rebecca (Tayloe) (Mrs. Francis Lightfoot),
108, 109-11, 112, 163, 190
Richard, 1, 3, 4-12, 16, 17-20, 25, 26, 28, 29,
30, 32, 40, 74, 91, 99, 114, 128, 133,
140, 145, 154, 202, 204, 213, 218, 222,
230, 268, 286, 336, 439, 440, 465
library of, 19, 25, 54

Richard Bland, 160, 229, 247, 251, 259, 278,
279, 286, 315, 358
letter from Ann Lee, 309-11
Richard Henry, 2, 4, 57, 58, 61, 84-5, 87,
91, 92, 94-6, 99, 100, 101, 102-7, 112,
113, 129, 135, 154-7, 163, 164, 165, 170,
178, 181-7, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193,
206-9, 211, 215, 219, 220, 222, 240-1,
252, 253, 257, 264, 279, 283, 285, 309,
312, 336, 417, 440, 455, 458, 461, 470,
475, 496, 514

Continental Congress delegate, 147, 156-7
death, 187

Declaration of Independence, signer of,
151

Independence resolutions (fascimile), 146
Lee Resolution, 156-7
letter from Arthur Lee, 113
letter from William Lee, 141-3
letter from Dr. Shippen (excerpt), 229-
30

library, 105-6

Revolutionary War activities, 139-44
slavery question, attitude towards, 158
Stratford Landing, Battle of, 135-6
Westmoreland Resolutions, 147-8
Westmoreland Resolves, 140
Robert, 4, 7

Robert Edward, 1, 308-9, 312, 313, 326-7,
329, 347, 348, 350, 352, 356, 358, 359,

363, 366, 367, 388, 390, 394, 431, 433,

440, 447, 449, 450, 451, 453, 454, 455,

458, 460, 478, 483, 495, 500, 509, 510,

INDEX

569

514, 516, 519

early recollections of Stratford, 326-7
Lanier’s memorial address, 447, 514
letters to daughters and wife (excerpts),
455-6

Robert Randolph, 314, 496
Rooney, 431
Sally, 105, 111
Sarah, 253

Sarah (Lee) (Mrs. Edmund Jenings), 253
Sidney, 297

Sidney Smith, 296, 297, 305, 306, 308, 312,

313, 347, 350, 352, 356, 358, 367, 390,

440

Theodoric, 160, 229

Thomas, 1, 12, 17, 22, 25-43, 87-8, 91, 94-5,
96, 99, 109, 114, 122, 123, 125, 127,
128, 129, 134, 154, 162, 199, 220, 227,

249, 266, 269, 279, 285, 326, 336, 371,

390, 4l4, 433, 440, 455, 457, 458, 460,

461, 462, 465, 470, 471, 475, 481, 485,

489, 496, 510.
birth, 25

"Brother Assaragoa," 68
Clifts Plantation, acquisition of. 28-33
Council, appointment to, 42
Council, president of, 75
councillor, 43, 65-75
death, 83

death of wife, 62-4
estate, appraisement of, 99, 100
Indians, dealings with, 65-81
inventory of Stratford, 466-70
Lancaster Commission, instructions to
(fascimile), 72-3
Lancaster speech, 68-71
letter from Gov. Clinton, 80
letter to Gov. Hamilton. 76
library, 25
marriage, 39-40
marriage bond, 39

monument at Pope’s Creek Church, in-
scription on (fascimile), 84-5
Ohio Land Company, 74-7
politics, local, 25-6, 41
politics, state, 33, 41-2, 81-3
tomb, 86

Virginia governor, 75-83
will, 89-91, 99-101

Thomas Ludwell, 2, 57, 61, 74, 88, 91, 96,

100, 101-2, 112, 160, 162, 190, 192, 209,
253, 440, 514

death, 154

Revolutionary War activities, 139-40
William, 2, 9, 18, 24, 25, 91, 92, 99, 100,

101, 111-13, 120, 122, 140-3, 150-1, 162-
3, 171, 173, 187-90, 192, 195, 219, 220,
227, 228, 235, 309, 331, 440, 455, 496,
514

American Revolution activities, 140-4, 149
commercial agent to France, 171-2
commissioner to Vienna, 172
death, 189

letter from Henry Lee, 1 50-4
letter from Philip Lee, 112
letter to Richard Henry Lee, 1 4 1 - 3
London activities, 141-3, 171

William Ludwell, 24, 190
(ship) 127

Chapel (Washington and Lee University,
Lexington, Va.), 390
coat of arms, 6, 10
family resume (Sept., 1771), 112-3
"Lee Hall,” Westmoreland Co., Va., 54, 55, 74.

1 1 1, 141, 204, 225, 227, 465
Lee lands, 23

"Lee Resolution,” 156-7, 191
"Lee, the American” (book), 453
Leedstown, Va., 139, 140, 147, 190
"Leedstown Resolutions,” 140, 459
Lee’s Landing, see Stratford Landing
Leesburg, Va., 96, 253, 328
"Leesylvania Plantation,” Prince William Co..
Va., 226, 227, 228, 229, 232, 240, 253, 330,
417

Legg, John, 241

"Legion Harry,” see Lee, Henry (Light-Horse
Harry)

Leicester, Earl of, 282
'"Leopard” (sloop), 334
"Letty” (slave), 211

Lewis, Captain , 334

Miss — , 274

Warner, 68, 134

Maj. William B„ 385, 388, 397, 398, 405,
406

William James, 92
Lexington, Battle of, 232

Lightfoot, Colonel , 88

Francis, 39
Philip, 32

Limerick, Tom, 131

Lingan, General James Maccubin, 338, 341, 343
Littlepage, James, 68, 134
Livingston, Chancellor, 415
Brockholst, 230
Cora, 415
Edward, 4 1 5

Colonel Henry Beekman, 415
Margaret, 370

Nancy (Shippen) (Mrs. Henry Beekman),
58, 109, 122, 161, 178-80, 194, 197, 198,
215-6, 288, 415
Robert R., 157
Lloyd, Edward, 504

Elizabeth (Tayloe) (Mrs. Edward), 504
Lockwood, Alice G. B., 504, 505

Lomax, Mr. , 74

Mr. , music teacher, 219

Margaret Robinson (Stuart) (Mrs. Thomas),
429, 431

Roberta, 431, 435
Thomas, 429

"Longwood,” 371, 409, 417, 427

Lossing, Mr. , 118

"Louis” (servant), 356

Louisville Courier Journal (newspaper), 449

Love, Mr. , 387

C. H., 398

"Lowland Beauty” (Lucy Grymes), 18, 225,
227

"Lubey” (slave), 21 1

Lucas, Dr. , 419, 420

"Lucey” (slave), 211

570

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Ludwell, Frances (Culpeper) (Mrs. Philip), 15,
24

Frances (Grvmes) (Mrs. Philip), 111, 227
Hannah, 1, 17, 22, 37, 39, 40, 45, 52, 54, 55,
62-4, 86-7, 91, 111, 199, 227
Hannah (Harrison) (Mrs. Philip), 1, 22
tomb, inscription on, 23
Hannah Philippa, 111, 112, 189
Jane (Cottington), 15
Jane Cottington, 15, 390
Lucy (Higginson) (Mrs. Philip), 15, 20
Philip, 1, 12-16, 19, 20-22, 23, 25, 37, 39,
40, 100, 111, 189, 227, 390
epitaph, 23

governor of Carolina, 16
Thomas, 9, 12, 15, 16, 22, 23
coat of arms, 10
family, 12-15, 16
lands, 23

Lunsford, Lewis, 205

Lyons, Miss , 273

Lyttleton, Mr. , 374

McCarty, Ann (Lee) Fitzhugh (Mrs. Daniel),
371

Anne Robinson, 370, 371, 372-5, 377, 379,

380, 386-7, 392, 393, 394, 395, 398, 400,
402, 404, 405-10, 425, 429

Daniel, 114, 115, 285, 371, 377, 423, 475
Elizabeth, 371, 372, 373-4, 375, 376, 380,

381, 409, 422, 423, 426-9, 431, 433-5,
439

Margaret (Robinson) (Mrs. Daniel), 371,
372, 429

McFarlane, Mrs. Elizabeth, 216
Mcllwaine, Dr. H. R., 471
McKee, Mrs. Lanier, 155

McKenna, Mr. , 354, 355, 356

McLean, Judge , 381, 383

McThany, Francis, 217

Madison, Bishop , 190

James, 177, 230, 250, 251, 255, 256, 257,
258, 263, 264, 266, 279, 318, 336, 338,
343, 345, 358, 367, 458
"Mahoney" (brig), 350
"Maid and the Doe” (book), 497
Mansfield, Lord, 143

Marbois, Mr. • , 177

Marchment, Lord, 143
"Margaret” (ship), 134
Marmaduke, Lydia Anna, 435, 437, 439
"Marmion” plantation, 141, 447
Marshall, Ann, 394

Martin, John, 130, 131, 255, 278, 288-9, 295
Mary, Queen of Scots, 429
(ship), 8

Maryland Gazette (newspaper), 54, 243-4
"Maryland Point” (house), Eng., 11, 12

Mason, Dr. , 355

Mr. , 400

George, 20, 74, 160, 183, 231, 255, 390,
417, 458
John, 390
Nannie, 390
T., 370

Masonic memorial to Washington, 253
Massachusetts Bay Company, 74, 77
"Matchem” (horse), 117

Mathias, Emmy, 395, 398
Octavius, 398
Teddy, 395, 398

"Matholic” plantation, Westmoreland Co., Va.,
19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 37, 39, 40, 42,
47, 52-4, 55, 57, 62, 114, 199, 213, 227, 465
burning of, 52-4
Matildaville, Va., 149

"Mattox” plantation, Westmoreland Co., Va.,
29

Maund, John James, 246

Mayo, Dr. , 397

Miss , 370

William, 512

Mead, Edward C., 223, 309

Meade, Bishop William, 12, 20, 204, 455

Menefie, George, 512

"Menokin House,” Richmond Co., Va., 108-9,
141, 160, 163, 189, 190, 231, 447

Mercer, Colonel , 328

George, 74
James, 74
John, 74
John Francis, 74
Merchant trade, 125-29
Miller, Dr. Harold W., 349
"Miss Serena,” 369, 370, 372
"Mrs. General Lee,” see Lee, Ann Hill (Carter)
(Mrs. Henry) (Light-Horse Harry)

"Molly” (slave), 211, 212
"Mom Sarah" (maid), 362

"Monitor’s Letters” (Arthur Lee's papers), 166
Monmouth, battle of, 233
Monroe, Andrew, 99
James, 91, 370
William, 82

Mont Martre (France), 405
Montgomery, John, 212

"Monticello” (Albemarle Co., Va.), 449, 451,
514

Moore, Ann Butler, 268, 269
"Morattico Hall, Richmond Co., Va., 18

Morris, Captain , 415

Robert, 303, 317
Thomas, 172, 173, 177
Morrison, Hugh, 186

Morton, Colonel , 1 15

Moryson, Francis, 9

Mosloy, Louis Guillaume Otto Comte de, 215,
417

"Mount Airy," Richmond Co., Va., 58, 68, 88,
107-8, 163, 219, 274, 279, 429, 447, 504,
506

"Mount Pleasant" plantation, see "Matholic"
plantation

"Mount Vernon" (Fairfax Co., Va.), 8, 252,
253, 295, 331, 417, 443, 449, 451, 504, 505,
509, 516

Moxley, Rodham, 377

"Mulberry Fields,” St. Mary's Co., Md., 377,
411, 414

Mullany, Mr. , 369

"Mumma” (mob leader), 340
Murphy, Mary Lee, 120, 199
R. Stafford, 120, 199
Muse, Richard, 131
Walker, 377

Musgrove, Major , 34 1

INDEX

571

Mynatt, Richard (servant), 97
"Myrtle Grove,"' Talbot Co., Md„ 388

"Nance" (slave), 211
Nashville Banner (newspaper), 450
Republican (newspaper), 382
"Nat” (driver), 356
National Intelligencer (newspaper), 390
"Neapsico,” Point of Rocks, see Freestone Point
Needwood Forest Academy, Md., 235

Nelson, Colonel , 1 1 5

Mr. , 341

Mrs. , 195

President, , 108

Henry, 338, 341
Thomas, 74
William, 88

"Nesting" plantation, 271, 273, 274, 288

Netherton, Mr. , 32

Neufville, M. de, 172

New York World (newspaper), 450

Newton, Thomas, 45, 47

Nicholson, J. B., 369

Nightingale, Philip M., 359, 360. 362

Nimmo, William, 74

Nissan, H. C., 393

Noailles, Vicomte de, 215

"Nominy Hall'' (Westmoreland Co., Va.), 58,
123, 130, 131, 205, 219, 447, 504, 510

Norris, Mr. , 355

North, Lord, 1 43, 1 45
"North Garden (Caroline Co., Va.), 68
"Northern Neck,” Va., 1 6, 25-6, 29, 33, 40, 91,
107, 117, 123, 228, 232, 306, 445, 451, 459,
462

Northwest Expedition, 334
"Northwest Ordinance,” 158, 186

Ogle, Mr. , 346

Ohio Land Company, 74-7

"Old Standers” (early Virginians), 1, 3, 148,
202, 271

Oldmixon, John, 126
"Olive Branch Petition,” 166-70, 191
facsimile, 168-9
Osley, W„ 349
"Ossian Hall," 331, 429
Otis, James, 140

"P.B.R.,” 345

Packard, Mrs. Joseph, 254

Page, Mr. , 110

John, 273
William, 355
Paine, Florentine, 8

"Panorama” (house) (King George Co., Va.).
429, 431

Panthon, Miss (governess), 220

Panton, Sally, 115

Paradise, Lucy (Ludwell), 122-3

"Paradise" plantation, Gloucester Co., Va., 8, 18

"Park Gate,” Prince William Co., Va., 253

Parke, Daniel, 15, 16, 390

Jane (Ludwell) (Mrs. Daniel), 15, 390
Parker, Richard, 24 1
Partisan Legion, 225

Parton, James, 384, 385, 387-8, 392, 396, 397
Paul, Mrs. , 349

Paulus Hook (New Jersey), 236, 364
Payne, John Howard, 338
Roderick (coachman), 435
Peachy, LeRoy, 217
Peale, Charles Willson, 154-55, 179
Pearce, Captain Williams, 512
"Peckatone Plantation,” Westmoreland Co., Va.,
25, 58, 62, 91, 199, 202, 204, 211, 213, 440,
447, 465, 509

Peery, Gov. George C., 516
Pendleton, Edmund, 147, 160, 255
Nathanial, 328
Penn, Richard, 166, 170
William, 462
Pennington, Sir John, 117
Perry, Commodore Oliver Hazard, 297
Micajah, 40
Peyton, Henry, 460
"Phil" (slave), 211
Philadelphia, description of, 287
Congress, 148
"Philee,” Va., 1 49

Phipps, Mr. , 32

Pike, Captain Zebulon, 334
Pinckard, Anne Gaskins, 113

Pinckney, Mr. , 194

Pitch and Tarr Swamp, Va., 1

Pitts, Doctor , 381

Plater, Governor , 411

Ann Rousby, 225

Elizabeth (Somerville) (Mrs. George), 411
George, 107, 4 1 1
Rebecca, 107
Pope, Ann, 29, 129
Humphrey, 45
John, 439
Johnanna, 29

Johanna (Mrs. Thomas), 439
Lawrence, 377
Nathaniel, 29, 439
Richard, 30, 439
Thomas, 29, 439

"Pope's Creek Plantation,” Westmoreland Co.,
Va., 243, 371, 372, 377

Porteous, Bishop , 232

Porter, Commodore , 398

"Porto Bello,” St. Mary’s Co., Md., 411

Powell, Mr , 297

Pratt, Mary, 217

"Precious Chass” (Fitzhugh Lee’s wife), 457

Primatt, Stephen, 50

Princeton University, 229, 230, 354

"Priscilla” (ship), 127

"Proclamation of rebellion,” 170

"Prometheus” (ship), 363

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 322
Randall, George, 41
Randolph, Edmund, 1 4 5, 154
John, 255, 293
Lucy, 355
Peyton, 147

Ransdell, Miss , 112

"Ranter” (horse), 228

"Ravensworth Plantation,” 331, 356, 388, 390,
392

Reed, Mrs. Susie, 427, 433
William B., 460

572

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Rhea, Mrs. Ellin Lee, 347

"Rich Neck Plantation,” James City Co., Va., 12,
22, 23

"Richard Hill” plantation, 323
"Richard the Scholar” (Light-Horse Harry Lee),
230

Richards, Mrs. , governess, 220

Richardson, Samuel, 26
"Rippon Lodge,” 331
"Roan” (horse), 228
Robinson, John, 75
Margaret, 371

Margaret (Williamson) (Mrs. William),
370, 371, 372
William, 371
Colonel William, 371

Rogers, Mrs. , 195

Roman, William, 128
Romney, Joyce, 7
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 516
Theodore, 390, 451
Rose, John, 372

Margaret (Williamson) Robinson (Mrs.
John), 372, 375

"Rose of Epping Forest” (Mary Washington),
225

"Rosegill" (Middlesex Co., Va.), 180
Ross, Charles, 192
Rothschilde’s, 406, 408

Rumbold, Lady , 412

Ruport, Anthony, 100

Rush, Miss , 370

Ruskin, Mr. (architect), 478

Russell, Elizabeth, 101
Gilbert C., 392
James, 100, 101, 120
Rust, Widow, 112
Jeremiah, 42
Peter, 99

Rutledge, Governor (of South Carolina),

194, 460

"Sabine Hall" (Westmoreland Co., Va.), 58,
123, 270, 376, 447, 504, 505
St. John, Gen. Frederick, 398
Thomas, 398

Saint Memin (painter), 412
Sanford, Edward, 131
Peggy, 377

Satterlee, Herbert L., 411

Scharf, Mr. (historian), 338, 339, 342

Schulz, Col. E. H., 506
Scorey, William, 26
Scott, James, 74

Sir Walter, 135, 404, 411
"Sea Horse” (ship), 127
"Sebrey” (servant), 356

Secret Correspondence Committee, 2, 1 4 1 , 144,
173

Sedgwick, Theodore, 292

Selden, Mrs. , 355

Semple, Henry Churchill, 204, 205

Shaw, Mr. & Mrs. , 360

Shays's rebellion, 251
Shelburne, Lord, 164, 171, 181
Sherley, Cecilly, 270
Sir Thomas, 270
Sherman, Roger, 157

Shippen, Alice Harriet (Lee) (Mrs. William),
2, 61, 62, 102, 111, 113, 141, 180, 190, 192-
8, 199, 200, 201, 205, 213, 214-5, 220, 225,
229, 244, 247, 312, 342, 417, 44 0
death, 198

letters from Hannah Lee, 206-9, 213, 214-5
letters and excerpts to Tom Shippen, 195-7
Betsy, 197
Dr. Edward, 460

Elizabeth (Farley) (Mrs. Thomas Lee), 279,
288, 367

Lloyd P„ 58, 87, 180, 213, 215, 252, 460
Nancy, 178, 194, 197, 198, 215-16, 247, 253,
288, 415, 417

Thomas Lee, 12, 62, 84, 87, 105, 109, 122,

165, 166, 173, 176, 180, 181, 183, 186,

190, 193, 194, 195-6, 197, 198, 225, 235,

244, 247, 253, 272-4, 288, 367, 455, 460,

461, 488

letters to Betsy, 273-4
letter to parents (excerpt), 497
Dr. William, 2, 58, 102, 111, 180, 192,

193-4, 197, 225, 229, 235, 246, 247, 272,
279, 440

letter to Richard Henry Lee (excerpt),
229-30

House, Philadelphia, 141, 176, 180, 192,

193, 194, 215, 246, 247, 288, 417
"Shirley-on-the-James,” Charles City Co., Va.,

268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275,

277, 278, 281, 285, 288, 301, 305, 306, 355,
358, 460

Shurcliff, Arthur A., 501, 503, 506, 509
Shurtleff, Harold, 505

"Shuter’s Hill” (house), Alexandria, Va., 285

Smith, Mr. , 297

John, 112, 126
Merriwether, 1 1 2
Philip, 112

Smollett, Mr. , 143

Somerville, Anna (Hebb) (Mrs. William), 411

(Clarke) (Mrs. John), 411

Elizabeth, 411
Sir Gualterde, 411

Henry Vernon, 244-5, 4ll, 412, 418, 419,
420, 422, 423
James, 4 1 1
Lord James, 411
James William, 4l4
John, 41 1

Rebecca (Tiernan) (Mrs. Henry Vernon),
41 1

Sir Thomas, 41 1
William, 41 1

Major William Clarke, 369, 370, 377, 384,
411-15, 417-21, 422, 423, 427, 439, 461
appointed charge d'affaires to Sweden,
415

appointed political and commercial agent
to Greece, 415
death, 419

"Essays by a Citizen of Virginia" (book),
414

letter to his sister-in-law (excerpts), 412
will, 418-9

Sorrell, Thomas, 33, 47
"Sotterley" estate, Md., 4 1 1
Sparks, Jared, 4l4

INDEX

Spencer, Nicholas, 16

Spotswood, Alexander, 19, 22, 26, 33, 35, 70,
71, 112, 134, 268, 303
Betty (Washington), 112
"Spread Eagle Tavern,” 234, 395
Sprigg, Otha, 338
Springfield, battle of, 233
Stadler, John, 220
Stael, Madame de, 399
"Stamp Act," 139, 140, 160
Congress, 140, 14 1
Stanard, John, 425, 426
Mary, 49, 1 18
William G., 15, 82, 118
Stanbaugh, Colonel L. C., 397
Staunton Convention, 380
Steptoe, Elizabeth, 102, 1 49, 205, 218, 220, 243,
309, 439

Dr. James, 82, 102, 154
Stewart, Anthony, 105
Victor, 123

"Stony Point," New York, 234, 236
Storke, Elizabeth (McCarty) (Mrs. Henry D.),
425, 426-9, 431, 433-5, 439, 497, 510
Henry D„ 422, 425, 426, 427, 429, 431, 439
Storrow, Colonel James Appleton, 374

Maria (Farley) Carter (Mrs. Samuel Apple-
ton), 279

Samuel Appleton, 272, 274-5, 276, 279, 331
"Stratford Green," Eng., 11

"Stratford Hall,” Westmoreland Co., Va., 1, 2,
12, 40, 43, 57, 58-61, 62, 68, 87, 91, 92,
125, 129, 158, 192, 213, 218, 219, 222, 225,

226, 228, 229, 231, 239, 253, 258, 283, 285,

293, 294, 299, 300, 303, 308, 309, 320, 324,

325, 326-9, 330, 358, 384, 409, 414, 417,

422, 429, 433-5
chinaware, 471
condition (1928), 443-5
dedication as a shrine, 516-9
departure of Lees from, 328-9
description, 476
erection, 47-52
gardens, 58-61

insurance policies (photostat), 472-3
inventory of expenses, 223
library, 199, 328, 373, 4l4, 458, 461, 462
plan, 47-52, 191
purchase (1928), 448, 449, 451
restoration, 448-9, 450, 453
gardens, 500-10
great hall, 486-8
kitchen, 481-3
mother's room, 483-6
smoke house, 481
construction finished, 512
site, 45

social life, 149-50, 223, 285-6, 299-302, 373-4
"Stratford House,” Eng., 11, 12
"Stratford Landing,” Westmoreland Co., Va.,
125-36, 220, 226, 330
battle of, 220

"Stratford Plantation,” Westmoreland Co.. Va..
241, 242, 251, 252, 253, 257, 259, 276, 282.
283, 299, 305-6, 367, 422-6, 427, 435-8
list of owners (1651-1929), 439
sold, 377

573

"Stratford School," Westmoreland Co., Va., 91-
2, 192

"Stratford: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow'
(report), 478-9

"Stratford-Langthorne,” Eng., II, 12

Strettell, Mr. , 76

Strieker, General , 339. 340

Strother, Benjamin, 99
Stroud, Samuel, 41
Stuart, Albert, 435

Clara D. (Mrs. Charles F..), 437
Charles, 431

Charles Edward, 431, 433, 435, 437, 438,
439, 448
Rev. David, 429

Eleanor (Calvert) Custis (Mrs. David). 429,
431

James, 429

Jane (Gibbons) (Mrs. David), 429
Julia (Calvert) (Mrs. Richard Henry), 409.
426, 427

Lydia Anna (Marmaduke) (Mrs. Richard
H.), 435, 437, 439
Margaret, 372, 375

Margaret (Erskine) (Mrs. James), 429
Margaret (Robinson) McCarty (Mrs. Rich-
ard), 372, 429, 431

Richard, 372, 373, 375, 409, 423, 425, 427,
429, 439

Richard Henry, 372, 375, 376, 409, 429,
431, 434, 435, 437, 438, 439
Roberta (Lomax) (Mrs. Charles), 431, 435
Ruth (Yeaton) (Mrs. Charles E.), 427, 435,
437

Rev. William, 372, 429, 431
vs. Lee (lawsuit), 375-6
"Sugar Lands Plantation." Loudoun Co., Va.,
259

Sullivan, Captain William, 350
"Sully,” 278, 279, 286, 294

Sumpter, General , 239

Swann, Mr. , 355

Swift, Miss , 197

Taliaferro, Mr. , 379, 381

Tarleton, General , 234, 395

Tayloe, Anne (Corbin) (Mrs. William), 107
Elizabeth, 504

John, 32, 68, 74, 88, 107, 112, 115, 134,
163, 218, 226

Rebecca, 107, 108, 109-11, 112, 1 63, 190.
218, 219

Rebecca (Plater) (Mrs. John). 107

William, 107
Taylor, George, 3 1 4
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 314
Theater, first colonial, 37-38

Thomas, Governor (of Pennsylvania),

68, 75

Rev. David, 204-5

Thompson. Colonel , 88

Thomson. Charles, 195
James, 402-3

Thornton, Mr. . 7

Presley, 68, 74, 134
William, 74

Thorp, Mr. , 189

Thruston. Col. R. C. Ballard, 497

574

STRATFORD HALL: THE GREAT HOUSE OF THE LEES

Tiernan, Rebecca, 411
Tiffey, Pope, 377

Tomkins, Mr. , 370

"Towlston” (orchard) Yorkshire, Eng., 511
Townsend, P. S., 393

Travas, Dr. , 220

Treaty of Alliance, 417
Trever, K. L., 249
Trotman, John, 349

"Tuckahoe” (house) (Goochland Co., Va.), 50
Tucker, Bishop Harry St. George, 516

Turberville, Mr. , 251

George Richard, 112, 120, 213, 217
John, 214

Martha (Corbin) (Mrs. George), 112, 122,
199, 206, 213, 217, 509
Turbeville, Cornelia, 355

Turner, Mr. , 285

Charles, 400, 406

Jane (Fauntleroy) (Mrs. Thomas), 112
Thomas, 112
Twain, Mark, 162
Tyler, John, 397, 403
Lyon Gardiner, 270

"Uncle Billy Payne" (house servant), 434, 435
"Uncle West" (negro), 497, 498
United Provinces of North America, 148
United States Telegraph (newspaper), 385
"Upton House," Eng., 50
Urban, Sylvanus, 62

Valentine, Edward V., 450
Valley Forge (Pennsylvania), 236

Van Ness, Mr. , 369

Vaughan, William, 29
Vaulx, Cate, 112
Vergennes, Comte de, 171, 181

Viollet-le-Duc, , (architect), 478

Virginia

Indiana Company suit, 280
map at time of Revolution, 152-3
sympathetic resolutions, 144-5
Bank, 354, 356
Company, 74, 77
Constitutional Convention, 264
Convention, 160
Gazette (newspaper), 277-8
Remonstrance (newspaper), 9
"Viz-Dinah” (slave), 212

Waddington, Mary King, 419
"Wakefield" (Westmoreland Co., Va. ), 443,
449, 516

Walker, Captain — , 133, 196

Colonel , 273

Frank, 274
Thomas, 29

Mrs. W. M., 426, 427, 431
"Walnut Hill," 253
War clouds of 1812, 334-6
Ward, Minnie, 326, 427, 433, 457
Rev. William N., 433
Warfield, Peregrine, 338
Dr. Philip, 338, 341
"Warner Hall,” Gloucester Co., Va., 68

Warren, Mr. , 176

Sir John, 345, 347

Washington, Mrs. , 218

Ann (Pope) (Mrs. John), 29, 129
Augustine, 58, 131
Betty, 112

Bushrod, 252, 253, 255
Corbin, 253
Elizabeth, 506

George, 18, 29, 58, 94, 140, 147, 187, 193,

196, 225, 227, 233, 234, 235, 23 6, 238,

243, 248, 249, 253, 256, 257, 258, 259,

264, 2 66, 276-7, 280-1, 286, 287, 288-

92, 293, 295, 301, 320, 330, 332, 336,
371, 378, 417, 429, 443, 458, 459, 516
letter to Col. H. Lee, 258
Hannah (Lee) (Mrs. Corbin), 253
John, 29, 105, 223
John Augustine, 253

Martha (Mrs. George), 258, 295, 412, 429
Mary (Mrs. Augustine), 58, 225
Mary (Lee) (Mrs. William Augustine),
253

Mildred, 253
Molly, 218
Nancy, 112

Colonel William Augustine, 253
City Gazette (newspaper), 382
College, Lexington, Va., 315, 348, 366
Monument, 289, 293, 295
Waterman, Thomas Tileston, 50, 202
Watson, Josiah, 283, 287
"Wawasett” (boat), 433, 434
Wayne, Anthony, 234, 458
Weeks, Benjamin, 82, 130, 131
Welch, Reuben, 32
Welden, George, 226, 242
Henry, 241-2
Wellford, A. W., 376
Wellington, Duke of, 412
Wells, Robert, 29

West, Cecilly (Sherley) (Lady West), 270
Thomas (Lord Delaware), 270
West-and-Sherley-Hundred, Charles City Co.,
Va., 270

West Point, New York, 388, 390
"Westham Manor,” Eng., 11, 12
"Westmoreland Resolutions," 147-8, 191
"Westmoreland Resolves,” 149, 160, 190-1
"Westover Plantation," (Charles City Co., Va.),
17, 271, 272, 273, 288, 506
Wetherburn, Henry, 97, 98

Wharton, Mr. ■ , 172

Whiskey Rebellion, 338

"White Rose of Maryland" (Ann Rousby
Plater), 225
Whiting, Beverley, 58
Whitney, Eli, 334

Wilkes, Mr. , 164

Wilkinson, General James, 367
Willess, Robert, 217
"William" (servant), 356

William and Mary, College of, Williamsburg,
Va., 22, 195, 253, 269, 315, 325, 366, 411

Williams, General , 349

Mr. | , tutor, 220

Morley J., 506, 507, 510, 511
Otho Holland, 328
Williamsburg, description of, 35
social life, 37-39

INDEX

575

Willing, Mary, 272

Mathilde (Carter) (Mrs. Thomas), 402
Tom, 402

Wilson, Mr. , 189

Woodrow, 451
Wilstach, Paul, 39, 134
"Winney" (slave), 212
Wise, Henry, 403
Henry A., 367

Wistar, Dr. , 194

Witherspoon, Dr. John, 229, 231

Wolsey, Cardinal , 196

Wood, Lt. -Governor , 280

"Woodlawn," 331
Woodrup, Joseph, 74

"Woodstock,” 293, 294

Wool, Mr. , 369

Woot, Hugh, 100

Wormeley, Colonel , 115

Wright, T. R. B, 139

"Wye House," Eastern Shore, Md., 504, 506
Wythe, George, 102, 160, 225, 253
Mrs. George, 195

Yeaton, Ruth, 435, 437
William Chauncey, 435
"Yorick" (horse), 115-17
Yorktown, Va., 218, 225
Youell, Anne (Lee), 11
Thomas, 1 1

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